No they don't. All that's been counted is from the BBC1 transmission from Saturday

It's a shame that they didn't repeat this one on BBC 1 in case people missed it.

I'm not normally one to panic about the ratings but it's interesting that it looks like there will be approximately 3 million difference between the Journey's End episode and the Name of the Doctor. I know that Journey's End attracted a lot of attention because of the fake regeneration cliffhanger from Stolen Earth but I would have thought that the Name of the Doctor would attract similar attention.

I wonder if there is some truth when people say that the series as a whole attracts less buzz these days than it used to, or is it just that the ways that people watch TV has changed in the intervening years?

I think you are right, loads of people now are watching on I player, especially with the bigging up of i player from the BBC.

But even if it were the case, it still wouldn't bother me as I just love watching Doctor who, whether it has as much buzz as before or not.

A bit of both. I think both those who are in the "It's exactly as popular as it was before" and the "it has much less viewers" camps are to a degree incorrect.

It still has a very high reach, but it doesn't seem to be "the nation's favourite drama" .

Random point - the show won Most Popular Drama five years in a row at the National Television Awards under Davies and hasn't won the same award at all under Steven Moffatt. Matt Smith has won one time out of three nominations for best Actor whereas Tennant won four times in a row successively.

I don't think the show can compete with the likes of Downton, Call the Midwife, or Broadchurch.

Another point - the final average rating for series 7b is probably going to be lower than that achieved by Last Tango in Halifax series one. (which returns for series 2 and a Christmas special this year)

I don't know much about this, so this may or may not be a good point.

But what exactly was Doctor who and David Tennant up against back then for those awards in comparison to what Doctor who and Matt Smith is up against?

Oh Disco! But no seriously you make very good points... I think a fake regen is much more of a draw than possibly knowing the name of the doctor. And some people really did genuinely not watch because they thought Moffat was peeing over the past... Shame for them really I thought it was brilliant...

Actually I guess, thinking about it a little more. It was the cliffhanger ending from Stolen Earth that created the buzz for Journey's End. There wasn't any build up to this finale from the Nightmare in Silver, but the cliffhanger from the Name of the Doctor is creating most of the buzz now so hopefully that will carry on to the 50th anniversary episode

7.5m would be brilliant, yes, but I do think it's worth remembering that would be lower than every episode from 7A. In fact, every episode since The Rings of Akhaten has been lower than every episode of 7A. I know there's a lot of factors involved in that but it's a fact worth remembering really.

Thank you.

In the US, the 9pm broadcast of The Name of the Doctor on BBC America had 1.269 million viewers (from S7.2, only the mid-season premiere had more, with 1.496 million viewers).

Overall, S7.2 averaged roughly the same number of viewers as S7.1, while S7 rated 41% higher than S6 (all averages below are for regular episodes - no Christmas specials included):

S7.1 average: 1.131 million / 0.44 in 18-49 demo
S7.2 average: 1.071 million / 0.46 in 18-49 demo

S6 average: 0.775 million
S7 average: 1.094 million

It's fair to say that the show is not as big as it was for its end of Series Four/Specials year peak, but compared to Series One to Three, Five and Six, and the earlier part of Series Four (and taking into account changes in viewing), it is still as big as it's usually been. Remarkable enough, I think, for a show eight years in.

Also, as a younger skewing, early evening Saturday family show, it's always been beaten by older skewing peak time Sunday and weekday dramas. Before Downton and Midwife there were New Tricks and Doc Martin. It's easy to forget that, but the weekly charts tell the story pretty clearly, as Who has been top twenty far more than top ten.

As for the NTAs, context is key:

In January 2011 they had a single drama performance award. With male and female competition combined, Smith and Gillan up against Cumberbatch, and David Jason riding on the goodwill from the last Frost show, the award was his for the taking.

That was also the year that Who faced its first serious competition, in Sherlock, leading to the highly unexpected win for Waterloo Road. I don't think anyone seriously doubts that happened because of the two Moffat shows splitting the vote.

January 2012 saw the drama performance categories split again, and wins for Smith and Gillan. As a symptom of its extraordinary rise, Downton's drama win wasn't a surprise.

Last year simply saw some of the strongest competition in years. Cumberbatch, Morgan and Smith. Downton, Sherlock and Merlin.

Contrast Tennant's last year, where Who faced Casualty, The Bill and Shameless. Or the previous year against The Bill, Shameless and Desperate Housewives. More evidence for how weak the drama slate was back then than of greater success for Who.

In January it will be interesting to see what happens with Midwife, Downton and Broadchurch in competition (and possibly Sherlock). Even with the Who anniversary come and gone, that will be one hell of a field. Certainly not like facing The Bill and Casualty...!

Personally, even if it means fewer awards for Who, I think the stronger popular drama slate is a very good thing.

In a sense 'Name' is 'The Stolen Earth' to the anniversary special's 'Journey's End'. It feels like we've only had part one of the series finale, with a six month wait until part two.

I do sometimes feel that people on this forum are a bit too quick to dismiss the Season 4 viewing figures as either luck or the result of a stunt in the final episode.

I saw season 4 and - in particular - the final two episodes as RTD bringing together everything he had created since 2005 plus some amazing aspects of Classic Who and delivering something that was truly successful - really popular 'must see' TV. I also think RTD (and Tennant) knew when it was time to move on.

I almost think Steven Moffat is going in the opposite direction and losing momentum rather than building it up. If he intends to stay with the show, he really must do better than Season 7 and - in particular - Season 7b or the viewing figures could slide into serious trouble.

I think it's hard to deny that the near two million jump for Journey's End was because of a stunt. But a good one. Stunts aren't a bad thing if done well.

That aside, while there's no doubt Series Four hit the show's peak point, there's also no doubt its success gets exaggerated and often misremembered, and that it acts to inflate perceptions of how the rest of the RTD era did. Which was, frankly, about as well as Series Seven. Even before we take into account the post RTD era fragmentation of the audience.

I certainly don't think putting Series Four into perspective and context can be seen as dismissing it. Personally I think it was a great run. But it is a run that saw a slide to 6.53m, and on going up against BGT got BBC One ratings below anything in 7b, and the second lowest ratings of the past eight years.

As for the Moffat era, arguably he hasn't been able to build up momentum, but while that has led to no Series Four level peak, it hasn't stopped him maintaining the general level of success that his predecessor managed. And this far into the run, that's not to be sniffed at.

Indeed it was an incredible achievement to get nearly nine million watching for The Stolen Earth in summer never mind 10 million for Journey's End. Series four deserved everything it go IMO.

I sense that the 50th Anniversary will grab ratings at least on par with Journey's End though (With TImeshift). It has:

*The return of David Tennant in a major role which is guaranteed to bring back a lot of the fans of his era who don't watch now. (And to a lesser extent, Billie Piper)
*An EVENT status as it is the 50th Anniversary.
*John Hurt as a potentially new Doctor which will invoke a lot of public interest, especially from the end of Name of the Doctor.
*The BBC would be gobsmackingly stupid to involve John Hurt and David Tennant and not generate a HELL of a lot of publicity.

The only danger is a potential clash with X-Factor, but that show may not pose so much of a threat as, say BGT,

I'd be interested to know how complex the ratings method was in 2005-2009 compared to now. A lot has changed in the past nine years. We still had a video recorder!

If it works out the same, then fair enough, but does a FINAL rating of (say) 6.2m for a season 2 episode include all the people who recorded it on video (or whatever digital was about at the time) and then watched it later, as we have now with Sky+/Virgin+ Box nowadays.

Series ratings stats so far...

1. Asylum of the Daleks

Rating 8.33m Share 34.4%
Live+7 9.65m
I-Player 2,259,733

2.Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Rating 7.57m Share 31.9%
Live+7 8.64m
I-Player 1,834,440

3. A Town Called Mercy

Rating 8.42m Share 33.4%
Live+7 9.22m
I-Player 1,411,256

4.The Power of Three

Rating 7.67m Share 31.8%
Live+7 8.68m
I-Player 1,464,227

5.The Angels Take Manhattan

Rating 7.82m Share 32.0%
Live+7 8.92m
I-Player 1,648,276

6. The Bells of St John

Rating 8.44m Share 35.8%
Live+7 9.78m
I-Player 2,470,473

7. The Rings of Akhaten

Rating 7.45m Share 34.8%
Live+7 8.65m
I-Player 2,172,875

8. Cold War

Rating 7.37m Share 31.4%
Live+7 8.28m
I-Player 1,822,646

9. Hide

Rating 6.61m Share 29.2%
Live+ 7.64m
I-Player 1,789,811

10. Journey to the Centre of the Tardis

Rating 6.50m Share 30.2%
Live+7 7.47m
I-Player 1,727,290

(Thanks to Marcus at Gallifrey Base for the statistics.)

Says it all really. Final ratings and iplayer down week after week after week.

But everything's perfect, right?

Which is consistent with every series of Doctor Who. Until episode 9 this was the second most watched series and there were still complaints. Series 8 has been confirmed and there are still complaints.

It's Year 50 and we're still going. Yes, it is perfect, actually. A BBC science fiction show capable of pulling just under 10 million viewers for episodes in a week and still break iPlayer records for those same episodes. That's a remarkable achievement.

One which we should be very pleased with. But no. We love a good moan.

Doctor Who is pulling in figures 3 time that of the last Star Trek series to air. Up to 9 times that of the last Stargate series. These shows were killed off while Who continues to be picked up in a Saturday night slot. It's borderline ridiculous how popular this show continues to be.

Even if you ignore Classic Who, this is VERY good news for a drama series running for eight years.

That's a little unfair. Those aren't the final figures for The Name of the Doctor yet. There's still half a week to go...

Er, well as Episodes 12 increased it's final rating on 11 and 13 will increase on 12, what is your unbiased take on that information? As for iPlayer, you do realize the later the episode the less time for views right?

Also need to bear in mind how many days different episodes have been on iplayer.

Bells = 52 days vs Journey = 24 days.

Doctor Who is one of the BBC's biggest shows in it's 50th anniversary year? Hell yeah.