The BBC aren't going to cutdown on Doctor Who. They want a dull series. It's Moffat that's doing split series. They were right to move The Voice later but Doctor Who could still go out at 6.15pm and avoid BGT. That's what BBC1 should have tried to do.

6 o' clock in the middle of spring just isn't an auspicious timeslot for it anymore. It should have been airing from february or in merlin's old slot.

Very strange. The ratings were going along quite nicely, but now the bottom seems to have fallen out of them.

The BBC seem to be letting the show 'wither on the vine' at the moment.

No trailers and a unnecessary time clash with BGT.

But they seem to be pulling out all the stops to get the Voice to be a massive success.

Very poor from the BBC if you ask me.

They need the Voice to be a massive success to justify the large amount of money they spent getting the rights

I absolutely agree that the BBC need to be supporting the show more - but I think having two consecutive episodes of dubious quality (Akhaten and Cold War) probably didn't help.

Yes i agree. These episodes whatever we think of them, didn't really connect with the 'casual' viewer.

It's a shame because Hide was a great episodes of 'Nu-Who' and Journey to the centre of the Tardis is getting nothing but great previews....

Well the lowest timeshift we've had (excluding VOSDAL) for 7b was 1.6m last week. Which if it matched that we should see 6.6m

However, a usual trend we see with episodes that get poor overnights is that the timeshift comes in above average.

So I'd like to think we'll still see a consolidated figure of around 6.7m/6.8m. it's just a shame that it'll most likely fall short of the 7m mark.

I don't agree, both of those episodes had an AI of 84 and Hide had 85, so there is no great difference there.

Let's also not forget that whilst AI's of 84 and 85 might be considered a bit low by DW standards, they are actually excellent when compared to many other shows out there.

Lol this thread is funny. It seems some posters thing it might be the end of the world if it doesn't reach 7m. And to say the BBC want to cut down a program that will still reach 6.5m at least is a very stupid thing to say. Its one of the BBC's biggest programs. Also i think people are forgetting the Weather these past few days have been really nice so a lot of people might not have watched the episode yet.

Isn't this a bit of an overreaction? Only one episode got a bit lower ratings than the norm, didn't it?

Doctor Who is popular worldwide, you cannot judge its popularity from two statistical measures from one country.

I don't think so. The last few episodes have had no publicity. But saying that the average is still in great shape.

Just a little bit pissed off with the BBC to be honest. Pulling out all the stops for the Voice and (to me as least) nothing for Doctor Who.

It is a British programme, and whilst it may be popular around the world it's popularity in this country is of far more importance (not that there's an issue with it's popularity here, it's doing just fine at the moment, as it has done since 2005).

I disagree with that, yes it is important to retain British viewers and to try and attract even more British viewers. But also I feel it is equally important to attract viewers in other countries. Some people on here are heavily relying on two statistical measures. The BBC will look at the bigger picture when judging the success of Doctor Who.

Put it this way, if the ratings in this country were to plummet and the popularity of the show declined dramatically (neither of which I think will happen by the way) then the BBC will axe it, irrespective of how popular it is elsewhere.

Not necessarily. A case in point in point is 'Neighbours' not very popular in it's home country but in no danger of being axed because it is still popular in other countries, the UK included.

Not necessarily if it was making profits and the people involved have new ideas on the storyline. Plus they could attract UK viewers through DVD sales. As you said it won't happen in the first place.

Agree that there has been too little promotion but I figure that might be to not risk boring the casual viewer prior to what I imagine will be a big publicity push for The Name of The Doctor....

But the BBC make shows for licence fee payers, i.e. British residents. Surely it wouldn't be fulfilling it's charter to make shows that were only a success elsewhere (Not that there is a risk of that at the moment but still).

The BBC doesn't just make shows for licence fee payers. A lot of its programmes are sold overseas. If Doctor Who was making a profit overseas they could reinvest that profit into making more popular UK shows. Therefore licence fee payers will still benefit by the existence of Doctor Who even if it wasn't popular in the UK

The BBC makes shows for the British licence fee payers. Some of these shows are sold overseas. This is a bonus, the BBC would not continue producing television programmes purely for an overseas audience.

Not sure how the math would work out there...is it possible that they could spend (purely speculative figure) 10 million on a show the British public don't want in the hope of being able to accrue 10 million + in worldwide sales to reinvest in programming? With the license fee always under threat that would be a hard political and public sell.

Just as well the show is really popular so the issue is unlikely to come up

No. Not remotely. The ninth Episode of Series Seven looks likely to hit c. 6.6/6.7 million. Below are the episodes at which each previous series fell below 7 million:

Series One

1.01 - 10.81
1.02 - 7.97
1.03 - 8.86
1.04 - 7.63
1.05 - 7.98
1.06 - 8.63
1.07 - 8.01
1.08 - 8.06
1.09 - 7.11
1.10 - 6.86

Only one episode further on, and look at that drop over three weeks, with episodes nine to ten seeing a 0.25m fall.

Series Two

2.01 - 8.62
2.02 - 9.24
2.03 - 8.31
2.04 - 7.90
2.05 - 9.22
2.06 - 7.63
2.07 - 6.76
2.08 - 6.32
2.09 - 6.08

Episodes two and five were boosted by big football matches, otherwise that's the story of a nine week slide, with the first fall below 7m being in episode seven, a fall of 0.87m from the previous week, and still it fell for another two weeks after.

Series Three

3.01 - 8.71
3.02 - 7.23
3.03 - 8.40
3.04 - 6.69
3.05 - 6.97

The first rating below 7m happens even earlier, at episode four. The drop from the previous episode is a very high 1.71m, but since episode three was heavily boosted by football, we'll say it represents a 0.54m drop from episode two.

Series Four

4.01 - 9.14
4.02 - 9.04
4.03 - 7.50
4.04 - 7.06
4.05 - 6.53
4.06 - 7.33

The all conquering Series Four, which the faulty memory of some has as scoring nine or ten million a week. Yet that is a week by week slide over the opening five episodes, bottoming at 6.53m.

Series Five

5.01 - 10.08
5.02 - 8.42
5.03 - 8.20
5.04 - 8.59
5.05 - 8.50
5.06 - 7.68
5.07 - 7.55
5.08 - 6.49
5.09 - 7.49

Poor Series Five hit a run of great weather, the worst opposition and most trying circumstances. Nonetheless, episodes four to eight saw a slide to a sub 7m score, but still rebounded from that a week later. The 6.49m for episode eight being a 1.06m drop from the week before.

Series Six

6.01 - 8.86
6.02 - 7.30
6.03 - 7.85
6.04 - 7.97
6.05 - 7.35
6.06 - 6.72
6.07 - 7.51

And onto the last series. The fall below 7m comes at episode six, a 0.63m drop to 6.72m, the second big drop in a row.

Series Seven

7.01 - 8.33
7.02 - 7.57
7.03 - 8.42
7.04 - 7.67
7.05 - 7.82
7.06 - 8.44
7.07 - 7.45
7.08 - 7.37

Does that put a potential 6.6/6.7m final for 'Hide' in some reassuring context? Especially following an unprecedented eleven episode run of 7m+ scores?

No bottoms falling out, no collapses, no unprecedented slides in ratings, no sign of disaffection. Just... normal.

Repeated for rare rationality.

Polite applause for an unbiased analysis... if only we could copy this and pin it to the top of the forum permanantly!