Dr Who Ratings Thread (Merged)

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Muttley76

04-01-2014

In regards to iplayer, there has been a bit of a natural evolution over the years, at one point the figures were just the raw data - total views, not unique views, so if the same person watched it twice it's still counted in the total views, what they can do now is reflect unique views, which is obviously more meaningful when considering the total reach. The initial data released is still the total views, with the refined figure coming later.

Once it's being measured by BARB through their sampling system we will be able to get this information more efficiently.

Unfortunetly the whole Smith era is going to under represent the final episode ratings officially by quite a significant number ( too a lesser extent seris 4 and the specials year as well). Even taking the figure mentioned for Rings you can see a loss of getting on for one million viewers.

It's good that the technology is finally cattching up with how people watch TV now, but it' does feel BARB have dragged their heels a bit incorporating it .

Dr Thete

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Mulett:
“But these aren't the overnights but the final viewing figures. I keep getting told more people are watching on catch-up now, so surely any clashes would be neutralised by iPlayer viewing figures?”

The most volatile, and thus most easily gained and lost, part of the viewership are the casual/occasional/'if it's on' viewers. They are to be found, in general, in the overnight audience. If there is a large audience lead-in (e.g. football or Strictly), then they boost the figures If there is heavy competition, or decent weather, or some other depleting factor, then they go missing.

In the main the timeshifters and iPlayer users either choose that option by default, or come from the part of the overnight audience that are generally keen enough on watching that they'll catch-up if watching on the night isn't an option.

The less interested and more casual viewers aren't going to use catch-up services by definition.

Kieran Seymour

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Muttley76:
“Unfortunetly the whole Smith era is going to under represent the final episode ratings officially by quite a significant number ( too a lesser extent seris 4 and the specials year as well). Even taking the figure mentioned for Rings you can see a loss of getting on for one million viewers.

It's good that the technology is finally cattching up with how people watch TV now, but it' does feel BARB have dragged their heels a bit incorporating it .”

To be fair, this is nothing new.

VCR ownership was pretty widespread by the time the BBC started scheduling Sylvester McCoy's three seasons against Coronation Street. We know Doctor Who got hit hard by them doing so, but what we have no idea about is just how many people were having to timeshift each episode to accomodate the hardened CS viewers in the house.

It's worth remembering that back in those days Coronation Street and EastEnders were huge. If they got an audience now like they were getting then it'd be front page of the tabloids.

Mulett

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Kieran Seymour:
“VCR ownership was pretty widespread by the time the BBC started scheduling Sylvester McCoy's three seasons against Coronation Street. We know Doctor Who got hit hard by them doing so, but what we have no idea about is just how many people were having to timeshift each episode to accomodate the hardened CS viewers in the house.”

Thank you! I'm glad someone else has said this. I've been pretty much mocked for suggesting McCoy's viewing figures would be higher if 'catch up' viewers had been included. But I remember that John Nathan-Turner argued exactly this at the time!

I know Tivo/Sky+/Virgin Plus etc are much easier ways to record TV than video recording (what with series-link facilities etc). But people do seem to forget how much we actually used video recorders back in the 80s and 90s. We used them all the time. Doubtless, we were more choosy due to video tapes only being 3 or 4 hours long, but then we also had fewer clashes due to there only being 4 channels.

In McCoy's era (1987-89) far fewer households had more than one TV set and (as JNT used to argue) in split households, Coronation Street (with its 18m-20m viewers) would have been watched live and Who recorded.

And that 'catch up' audience was not captured meaning McCoy was saddled with figures of 4m-5m when the truth is he probably got much more than that.

Bob_1971

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by mboon:
“Yet, you will still get many Moffat detractors who insist he's lost the show millions (there was one who claimed Smith's era was 4 million down on Tennant's) of viewers. I gave up trying to educate them with the facts such as the above a long time ago. ”

Yeah, but he hasn't exactly gained millions either...

sw2963

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Benjamin Sisko:
“Here's the full era ratings!

David Tennant - 8.36 million
Matt Smith - 7.98 million
Christopher Eccleston - 7.95 million

I suspect that David's higher specials count (with the high ratings they had amassed) widened the margin between him and Matt more than it would have been if their episode count was equal.”

Thanks Benjamin so close there!!! It also shows how strong Series 1 was with the inflated Rose figures.

Jules 1

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by sw2963:
“Thanks Benjamin so close there!!! It also shows how strong Series 1 was with the inflated Rose figures.”

Using the Figures From Slug Web

http://doctorwho.slug-web.co.uk/?q=&o=7&s=1&g=1

- excluding the specials (Christmas and David Tenants 4 specials),

These are the averages for the "normal" series.

Code:

    Total Viewers no of Ep Ave Viewers (m)
Eccleston 103.33	13	 7.95 
Tennant	  303.05	39	 7.77 
Smith	  295.16	39	 7.57 
			
SeriesTot Viewers no of Ep Ave Viewers (m)
1	  103.33	13	 7.95 
2	  100.30        13	 7.72 
3	   98.14	13	 7.55 
4	  104.61	13	 8.05 
5	  100.08	13	 7.70 
6	   98.20	13	 7.55 
7	   96.88	13	 7.45

The Slug

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Jules 1:
“Using the Figures From Slug Web ...”

Hey thanks Jules, I love the fact that you've done something a bit different with the raw data. And the consistency of those figures with the 'specials' removed is quite surprising. And encouraging!

Michael_Eve

05-01-2014

Nice one Jules...and indeed The Slug. Had wondered about the ratings if you take Specials out of the equation. Pretty darn consistent for a programme that's been on the air for nine C21 calendar years.

CD93

05-01-2014

Out of curiosity, what would Series 4 have been without the Journey's End's 3m bump?

Muttley76

05-01-2014

According to the BARB site they started including VCR recordings in December 1984 so not sure thats the case actually.

Originally Posted by Bob_1971:
“Yeah, but he hasn't exactly gained millions either... ”

Worldwide? He absolutely has. Basically maintaining the audience inherited in the UK is in itself a huge achievement.

Mulett

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by CD93:
“Out of curiosity, what would Series 4 have been without the Journey's End's 3m bump?”

Its a bump of 1.79m at the end of season 4. But then you could argue that The Eleventh Hour gave season 5 a 1.68m bump at the start.

Mulett

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Muttley76:
“According to the BARB site they started including VCR recordings in December 1984 so not sure thats the case actually.

Worldwide? He absolutely has. Basically maintaining the audience inherited in the UK is in itself a huge achievement.”

John Nathan-Turner made it very clear that video recorded stats were never added to the ratings for the McCoy years. I would have though he would have known.

In terms of world-wide viewership, Moffat has at best maintained the viewership he inherited from RTD. I've seen forum member suggest there are more viewers in the US than ever before but looking at the ratings it seems the show on BBC America is getting about the same as season 1 was getting on Sci-Fi. And Classic Who got more.

Muttley76

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by CD93:
“Out of curiosity, what would Series 4 have been without the Journey's End's 3m bump?”

from a fixed point in space and time in this thread

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...&postcount=475

Series 3 vs series 4 final ratings(excluding Christmas specials):

***** series 3 series 4
episode 1 - 8.71 :9.14
episode 2 - 7.23 : 9.04
episode 3 - 8.41 : 7.5
episode 4 - 6.69 :7.06
episode 5 - 6.96 : 6.53
episode 6 - 7.19 :7.33
episode 7 - 7.41 : 8.41
episode 8 - 7.74: 6.27
episode 9 - 7.21 :7.84
episode 10 - 6.62:8.05
episode 11 - 7.84: 8.09
episode 12 - 7.31: 8.78
Average ----- 7.44:7.84

Michael_Eve

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Mulett:
“Its a bump of 1.79m at the end of the season. But then you could argue that The Eleventh Hour gave season 5 a 1.68m bump at the start.”

And 'Rose' for Series 1' etc

Probably asking for the Moon on a Stick here, but is there any data to give an idea how many people watched TDOTD worldwide? Or do we just stick to "a lot"?

Jules 1

05-01-2014

Firstly I am thankful to the Slug for his kind words and also the effort he puts into such a fantastic website, which makes further analysis so much easier.

Onto the Series 4 question, the last numbers of episodes of series 4 were doing very well in any case. as can be seen below, however if I was to cap the last 2 episodes at 8.1m

The Series Average drops from 8.05m to 7.80m.

Code:

	                Actual		       Capped
Partners in Crime	 9.14 	05/04/2008  1   9.14 
The Fires of Pompeii	 9.04 	12/04/2008  2   9.04 
Planet of the Ood	 7.50 	19/04/2008  3   7.50 
The Sontaran Strategem	 7.06 	26/04/2008  4	7.06 
The Poison Sky	         6.53 	03/05/2008  5	6.53 
The Doctor's Daughter	 7.33 	10/05/2008  6	7.33 
The Unicorn and the Wasp 8.41 	17/05/2008  7	8.41 
Silence in the Library	 6.27 	31/05/2008  8	6.27 
Forest Of The Dead	 7.84 	07/06/2008  9	7.84 
Midnight	         8.05 	14/06/2008 10   8.05 
Turn Left	         8.09 	21/06/2008 11	8.09 
The Stolen Earth	 8.78 	28/06/2008 12	8.10 
Journey's End	        10.57 	05/07/2008 13	8.10 
					
Average	                 8.05 		        7.80

I see Muttley beat me to it

, slightly different way of doing it, very similar results.

Muttley76

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Mulett:
“John Nathan-Turner made it very clear that video recorded stats were never added to the ratings for the McCoy years. I would have though he would have known.”

well i would have thought BARB would know, but I guess one of them is wrong….

Quote:
“In terms of world-wide viewership, Moffat has at best maintained the viewership he inherited from RTD. I've seen forum member suggest there are more viewers in the US than ever before but looking at the ratings it seems the show on BBC America is getting about the same as season 1 was getting on Sci-Fi. And Classic Who got more.”

In terms of the US, it did well on SCi-Fi when it was shown close-ish to the time it was broadcast to the UK but once they started showing it ages afterwards it went down a huge amount and didn't recover until the last few years. Plus it has a much higher media profile in the US than it ever has in the past. Worldwide, it has absolutely expanded a lot in recent years.

Mulett

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Michael_Eve:
“And 'Rose' for Series 1' etc

Probably asking for the Moon on a Stick here, but is there any data to give an idea how many people watched TDOTD worldwide? Or do we just stick to "a lot"?”

No idea. I'm sure someone clever like Slug will have it though!

I hope I don't look like I'm nit-picking, but RTD absolutely deserved that amazing rating for Journey's End. It was the climax to a superb season and got an amazing AI too.

I think taking Christmas specials and other specials out of the average ratings is fine but not specific episodes just because they have a particularly high rating.

Muttley76

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Michael_Eve:
“And 'Rose' for Series 1' etc ”

Thats the thing, once you start dropping one episode then you have to drop another, tbh, I prefer to go with the average overall rather than mess about. Arguably it's unfair on Eccleston as he had no xmas specially to boost his numbers, but it is what it is….

Michael_Eve

05-01-2014

[quote=Mulett;70645087]No idea. I'm sure someone clever like Slug will have it though!

I hope I don't look like I'm nit-picking, but RTD absolutely deserved that amazing rating for Journey's End. It was the climax to a superb season and got an amazing AI too.

I think taking Christmas specials and other specials out of the average ratings is fine but not specific episodes just because they have a particularly high rating.[/QUOTE

Generally really enjoyed series 4 with Tennant and Tate (Donna's my favourite companion period) so no argument with that!

Jules 1

05-01-2014

If we look at specials averages

Code:

Total     (m) Epi  Ave (m)
Smith	56.69	5    11.34 
Tennant	89.25	8    11.16

CD93

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Mulett:
“Its a bump of 1.79m at the end of season 4. But then you could argue that The Eleventh Hour gave season 5 a 1.68m bump at the start.”

I was working with overnights for some reason - too much discussion on that side of things

But my unconcerned stance is maintained on both overnights and finals. Doctor Who's ratings are consistently superb - and series averages can have peaks and troughs on single episodes alone, regardless of their quality.

Mulett

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by CD93:
“I was working with overnights for some reason - too much discussion on that side of things

But my unconcerned stance is maintained on both overnights and finals. Doctor Who's ratings are consistently superb - and series averages can have peaks and troughs on single episodes alone, regardless of their quality.”

I think AIs remain the biggest mystery for me!

CD93

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by Mulett:
“I think AIs remain the biggest mystery for me!”

In what way?

Quote:
“1 David Tennant 86.3 (47)
2 Matt Smith 85.9 (44)
3 Christopher Eccleston 82.2 (13)”

So 3008

05-01-2014

Originally Posted by CD93:
“In what way? ”

Well, A Christmas Carol being considered the joint worst episode of the Matt Smith era and on par with Fear Her, is quite mind boggling.

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