So still on course for 7.2/7.5m final. Pretty good I'd say!

Is it me or is this down relative to Dinosaurs / Power of Three from last year? Both episodes got 5.5million in the overnights but shifted to 7.6 - doesn't look like Akhaten is going to manage that.

I'd say it's likely to get around 7.4 million. Are we really going to quibble over something in the region of 0.2 million viewers, especially when we don't have the final data in?

The degree of timeshift will always fluctuate slightly for one reason or another, nothing to worry about. Worth remembering we are comparing March to September for example.

eta: In the autumn series last year, the timeshift varied from 1.81 - 2.09. I'd only see it as being meaningful if all of a sudden it was timeshifting 1.5 million or less.

Updated ratings see Doctor Who now over the 7m mark, with 7,076m

At the point Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was up to 7,220m. This increase actually came through Sunday's viewers.

So a brief comparison between series.

Bells of Saint John - 8.44 Million

Episode 6s

S1 - Dalek - 8.6 Million
S2 - Age of Steel - 7.6 million
S3 - Lazarus Experiment - 7.2 million
S4 - Doctor's Daughter - 7.33 million
S5 - Vampires in Venice - 7.68 million
S6 - The Almost People - 6.72 million

Split Part Episode 1s
S6A - The Impossible Astronaut - 8.86 million
S6B - Let's Kill Hitler - 8.1 million
S7A - Asylum of the Daleks - 8.33 million

Rings of Ahkaten - 7.076 (ONGOING)

Episode 7s
S1 - The Long Game - 8.0 Million
S2 - The Idiot's Lantern - 6.8 Million
S3 - 42 - 7.4 Million
S4 - Unicorn and the Wasp - 8.41 Million
S5 - Amy's Choice - 7.55 Million
S6 - A Good Man Goes To War (Finale) - 7.57 million

Split Part Episode 2s
S6A - Day of the Moon - 7.3 million
S6B - Night Terrors - 7.07 million
S7A - Dinosaurs of a Spaceship - 7.55 million

It's not going to get to 7.5m is it.... Still on for my prediction of 7.2m.

Well the Thursday update sees it rising to 7.180m, so with 2 and a half days of timeshifting to go I reckon will see reach about 7.3m

Thanks Yog. How does it compare to The Voice and Takeaway?

We're currently at 7.498m for The Voice and 7.206m for SNT (it's up to 7.791m when including +1).

It's of course worth remembering that SNT will jump up considerably once the adverts have been stripped out.

It's interesting that finals are so low for rings of akhaten relative to recent episodes - maybe this is due to negative word of mouth? Won't this be the lowest-rated episode of series 7 by quite some margin?

Well the lowest prior to this episode is Dino's on a spaceship. Which came in with 7.57m, so yes, it'll be the lowest unless it has some sort of miraculous last few days, which I very much doubt.

I imagine the bad press gained from this episode probably did have some sort of effect. Although the timeshift isn't that far off some of the other eps, it must be noted that the episodes that got below 2m timeshift did have pretty decent overnights. Something that can't be said of TRoA

Below shows the 7 Day Timeshift of Series 7, excluding VOSDAL

Ep1 1,891
Ep2 2,072
Ep3 1,859
Ep4 2,050
Ep5 1,913
Ep6 2,269
Ep7 1,681(with 2 and half days to go)

I think so too regarding the negative word of mouth, but if it reaches 7.3 million, then it'll only be the lowest by about 200k.

I doubt it's anything to do with word of mouth on this specific episode.

It's more likely they didn't like the first episode so didn't bother with the second (missing the Ponds, weren't drawn to Clara,didn't find the Spoonheads very compelling..or any number of reasons).

Update: 7.252m

Thought we'd see 7.3m today, but I'm sure it'll be over that once consolidated come in.

Eek - have a feeling it could go lower than this in the next couple of episodes - especially with a britain's got talent clash on the cards.

I believe the last time there was a full on clash with BGT was Series 4's Silence in the Library... Took a heavy hit and gave the 2nd lowest final rating since the series returned - 6.27 million. However, with timeshifting I doubt we'll get that low, but still....

Combined with the promise of another Neil Cross episode... *shudder*.

As a new writer to the series and given his excellent track record in other shows, it's quite unfair to judge Cross on his script for Rings (excellent though it was IMO) seeing as how "Hide" is more in his comfort zone writing wise and will be different to Rings in all aspects by the sounds of it.

I always thought it would be low. People who hadn't seen it heard that it was 'ropey' and didn't bother watching it. That's why I predicted a low final of 7.2m

This weeks episode will suffer because of the last episode. Now if it's as good as the trailers and previews, maybe it might have a chance.

Sadly I think we will start seeing overnights in the mid 4m.

The BBC doing it's annoying shifting around the schedules. The warmer dryer weather forecast... Plus it's going up against BGT next week..... Can only lead to a fall off. (imho)

Hopefully I'm proved wrong.

Dont forget Cross was judged by The Moff on his FIRST written episode (which was "Hide") and the Moff wanted him to write Rings too due to how impressed he was with Hide and how it turned out...so dont write Cross off...but i ADORED Rings so i say more the merrier

Doctor who won't full below 5m. Even if its up against BGT. Don't forget it was up agaisnt the final once and it still got over 5 m

Also BGT has Itv+1 so if there was a conflict for me I'd watch who then watch BGT...

Haaave ug uys heard of iplaayer i watched dwww on that , ok butt i need a huge sscreen forrr dw
ax my tv is too small bbut it wwworks

Any news on how Rings is doing?

5.73m for Cold War - decent and up on last week.

what happened to all those millions of viewers who were going to stop watching after hating last weeks episode so much

I am surprised a little by the increase, thought it might be very slightly down with the 6pm start, but I think possibly offset by the wider interest due to the ice warriors