Yes, that's probably right. Interesting, though, that they normally don't bother giving viewers such a choice.

Strictly regularly goes head-to-head with X-Factor which have largely the same audiences, And I'm sure all those dreadful Andrew Lloyd Webber talent search shows (like 'I'd Do Anything') went head-to-head with BGT.

It just feels to me like The Voice is getting special treatment at the expense of Doctor Who.

I explained why that was going to happen a few days ago. The figures we were seeing were including three minutes of weather. That has now been corrected with the official figures.

Thanks Dr Thete! The regular figures are healthy enough. But the Live+7 (a really good measure of how many people watched within a week) shows astoundingly strong performance.

Yep. It's lovely (and often times reassuring) that Yog101 gives up updates on the timeshifts, but the issue you mention does need to be taken in to account. The data above shows, for example shows a big dip in the final final five minutes, that of course will be due to people turning over as the credits role...

Lowest rating ep of the series so far in the overnights by 500k, and with the timeshift for 7B so far decreasing with each ep, probably the lowest officially too. Shame, I really liked last night's episode. Rings deserved that honour, awful.

Some of the most loved episodes of Doctor Who with fandom have ended up being among the least viewed - The Impossible Planet (6.32m), The Satan Pit (6.08m), Silence in the Library (6.27m), Blink (6.62m) etc.

It's ironic really, but I guess you can't know in advance how good a story will be!

I never got the hype around the last two of them (Not a fan of Moffat's episodes in general, loved his series 1 two parter and liked the series 5 finale and series 6 opener but that's about it, none of my favourite episodes of Moffat's era are his), but loved TIP and TSP.

Too complicated for you?

No me neither really, but they are very popular with fandom as whole. The only story of Moffats I really loved before him being show runner was The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.

The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit is one of the few series 2 stories I actually enjoyed.

yes they were far too complicated for both myself and Digital Sid. The fact that I have subsequently enjoyed most of Moffat's stories since he took over is because I had a brain transplant operation rather than it being a question of personal preference.

They're not remotely complicated. Complicated for Who yes, but it's a teatime family show, not Inception.

Still my favourite 2 parter in Doctor who!

Inception is hardly complicated - in fact it's nolans least compelling film, and notably less accomplished than blink. Memento or the prestige maybe.

Yep mine too

The Doctor Dances rated under 7 million as well (6.86m)

Same. Blink is a decent episode but it's not remotely deserving of all the fawning and recognition it gets, even Moffat himself didn't rate it and he rates his work more highly than his fans do.

Series 2 was my second least favourite series after series 6.

So....steering the thread back to ratings then....ratings are as strong as ever? Sort of? Eight years in and still hauling in the mainstream week after week

I think sometimes we an all get a bit too carried away with ratings and stuff.

Every show has dips and highs in rating for a number of reasons.

But 5 million overnights is still a good figure, not t mention I-player, people who were out enjoying the sun, BGT etc etc.

The finale and 50th Anniversary will draw loads in.

I reckon they will revert back to a full season rather tha splitting it in half next season as well, I think I remember them saying they wanted to do it like this because they didn't wanted it to build towards the 50th.

Though satisfaction doesn't seem to be quite as high, perhaps it would have been the same during the RTD era, but every other tweet last night was moaning about how little they liked this series, how they preferred David to Matt, how they were only watching for Matt now or how it was the first episode they'd liked in ages.

Basically, yeah, lol!

There are some fluctuations up or down for various reasons, but the show overall is still overall continues to average between 7.5-8 million viewers.

So by this logic it was good when Doctor Who was scheduled against Coronation Street in 1987 was it? Let's face it, the BBC are only interested in protecting The Voice.

Hard to compare with the RTD era, though, as twitter was hardly as prevalent back when he ran the show. And I can well remember the unpleasantness that was directed at him by fans here and on OG when he ran the show. So honestly? I don't think it's that different, it's just that it's different people complaining and they now have a more recent point of comparison to make than critics of the RTD era did.

I think it was a different scenario though, the shows strength now lies in the fact that it has an audience that uses multi platform options to view it. Back then, people either watched or didn't, and when it was up against Corrie they just didn't watch it.

Plus back then the show was not valued by the BBC the way it is now and a lot of people actively wanted rid of it.

You raise some very good points there.

I'm sure when a new writer takes over for Moffat we will hear people say how they preferred Moffat.

Hence "perhaps it would have been the same during the RTD era".

I meant regularly watching viewer rather than forum using hardcore fan but yeah, the proper fans are no more pleased now than they were then, OG hated his guts, now GB hate Moffat's. I lean towards RTD, I prefer Matt to David and I think the production values have improved considerably but lying to us, cheating us out of episodes and treating UK viewers like the red headed step child in an attempt to attract more US viewers irk me more than DT's tendency to Teeth Grit his way through episodes.

Yes, that's true.