Nice and consistent again. I wonder if this series will go down in history as being one of the most consistent with regard to viewing figures? I really would like to know what's happening to the rest of the viewing public as clearly, they're keen for more reality TV on Saturday nights with half of BBC1 switching over straight away to X Factor, but with a loss of a couple of million compared to a couple of weeks ago, is the novelty wearing off? Just glad it's not wearing off (or as obvious) for our good Doctor.

I find it a little futile to compare the viewing figures for Strictly and X-Factor to Doctor Who because they are different beasts. I shall be far more interested to know what Atlantis gets when it starts broadcasting.

I'm not usually a viewer of Casualty but I watched it last night because I saw a trailer for it before Doctor Who and it looked exciting (unfortunately I didn't find the show itself very exciting but I guess that's because I don't know the characters) but here's the the thing, the trailer got me interested in watching the show. Without exception I have found all of the next time trailers at the end of each episode of Doctor Who to be nearly as dull as Clara's boyfriend. If anything they make me want to not bother watching next weeks instalment. I really think that Doctor Who could and should be doing more to build it's own audience...

It's a bit sad that Doctor Who is now the BBC show with the lowest percentage share of the audience on a Saturday night:

BBC 1
17:30: Pointless Celebrities - 4.09m (26.8%)
18:20: Strictly Come Dancing - 9.06m (43.3%)
* peak - 9.99m (46.1%)
20:30: Doctor Who - 4.82m (21.5%)
21:15: Casualty - 4.74m (23.8%)
22:30: Match of the Day - 3.21m (24.9%)

Figures are copied from the main ratings thread.

EDIT: Apologies I should have noted that at least the Casualty element has been anticipated by others- but the point here is broader I guess.

I have to agree with this, the next time trailers this series have been appaling. The little 10 second teasers played out during the week aren't helping either. They really aren't doing anything beneficial in my opinion.

What I have missed this year, and I know they weren't shown on TV, is the individual posters for each episode like we had last series. Every episode felt special in its own way. It's that kind of individual trailering for each episode that is so lacking this time out.... (and I thought they didn't do a lot in terms of trailers during Matt's run, but that seemed positively brimming compared to now)

From today's Digital Spy story, it looks like X-Factor only gains about 0.57m viewers after Strictly finishes so I'm not sure where the other four million go when Doctor Who starts.

Its a shame there's no Strictly boost this year but - as others have said - the show is getting VERY consistent viewing figures. No big ups or down each week, so what we have are very respectable figures and a dedicated audience.

By the way - I agree 100% about the next time trailers. I don't think they've been quite right for a while now but I must say I thought the trailers for The Caretaker and also Listen were particularly poor.

I think Doctor Who is on the wrong time of year. Maybe after Christmas would be better. This is such an awkward time. Having to start at 8:35 is silly. Plus you got the X Factor on the other side.

Okay that's not great.


Both Merlin and Atlantis did fine in the slot. It helped Atlantis retain an audience in fact

Mitigated by it being the show with the greatest timeshift, though.

As an indicator of the shows current popularity I would be more interested in the sales figures for the related magazines, and when it re-opens, the footfall through the doors of the Experience.

6.82m for The Caretaker.

Correct. Merlin did well there. Who should still be getting 5m in overnights opposite X Factor. Ratings are solid but not particularly great.

But each episode DOES have a poster, they're over on the Radio Times website
http://www.radiotimes.com/news#{%22tag%22:%22doctor%20who%20posters%22}

Which now puts this series average currently lowest of them all. It needs a stellar end of series to boost it up again.

You're looking at the overnights as if they are live figures, and so when one show ends people jump live to something else, or not at all.

In fact they are a mix of live and early timeshift, meaning that exactly when several million viewers on the night actually watch any part of any show is entirely uncertain.

I suspect, though, a good number of people who have finished watching Strictly either a) go out (catching up on other stuff later); or b) go straight on to watch The X Factor (late). Catching up with Doctor Who at another time.

It depends what you count. Series 6b, the first autumn run, averaged 7.36m. 7b (albeit a summer run) averaged 7.12m.

As full series 6 and 7 do average higher, though they had two opening nights each, which does help.

Who knew putting Doctor Who on opposite The X Factor wouldn't help? Apart from anyone who saw what happened the times when it was fully opposite Britain's Got Talent, that is.

Merlin got better overnights there, but had lower (while still impressive) final ratings. Merlin's audience was also somewhat older, with a lower percentage of younger (i.e. X Factor watching) viewers. By being on so late, that's a forced on the night choice for a percentage of on the night viewers. And, in some cases, parental diktat re. something ending past 9pm.

I'm not sure what you mean by Atlantis retaining an audience? I don't recall what its overnights were, but in terms of its full ratings, it started at 7.36m and ended at 4.90m.

Nine of its episodes fell below the lowest ever Doctor Who rating from the past eight series.

That's not 'doing fine'.

The problem with the shares, is that they are distorted a) by the overnights including early timeshift (you could watch all of The X Factor and all of Doctor Who, and be counted in both their shares during the time they were broadcast simultaneously); and b) by shows (like Doctor Who) that timeshift heavily.

It's not a useful overnight measure any more. About the only real use is for channels, to work out which had the bigger shares for a given week (which includes timeshift).

Back when shows were competing live on the night, no VOSDAL, the shares had a clear basis for comparison. BARB stopped live only overnights in 2005, though (after Series 1).

If that isn't enough, at least consider that 21.5% against The X Factor (though, as I've said, it's not that simple) would be more impressive than Pointless getting 26.8% against Off Their Rockers and the ITV News, or Casualty getting 23.8% against Through the Keyhole.

This is the pivotal information. It becomes easy to try and defend the show you love when it performs poorly, but Doctor Who isn't in any such danger.

Whilst it secured the smallest audience share of any programme on BBC1 that night, that was by consequence of putting it up against X Factor which is one of the most audience-share hogging shows of the night. If you put Pointless on in the same slot as Doctor Who, it would not secure an audience share of even 20% without a doubt. That 21% is extremely valuable to the BBC, giving them a consistent viewership throughout the night rather than one that goes up and down, leaving particular shows in trouble and lined up for the axe.

As an added plus, Doctor Who gets more iPlayer views and downloaded viewings than the majority of shows in that line-up, if not all of them. By the time all that has been considered, and the fact the show is the only one of those that can also profit from strong merchandise sales (DVD's in particular) it's actually still standing up very well. it's not a remarkable viewing figure and there's no sign of it increasing or anything wonderful like that, but there's no decline that is calling for concern.

Ah! I did not now that. Thank you. That makes much more sense.

The overnights settled to okay levels but once the strictly lead in was gone they completely collapsed. It was clear that the lead in was REALLY propping Atlantis up simply because part of the SCD audience liked it enough to not bother turning over. Merlin also tended to do far better after SCD than before even when it clashed with XFactor. Better lead in and later slot worked for them so it's not a bad timeslot at all for DW despite what some are trying to claim.

Thought you should have a bit of comfort - Downton Abbey is down 1.4m on last year. While XFactor jumped from 7.3 on Saturday to 8.8 on Sunday. Ratings are all over the place, all across the board - and drama is taking the brunt of it.

While Doctor Who is still up YOY for this slot for 7B, you lose the nearest point of comparison after next week, as there was no episode 9.

*slips back in to the shadows*

Live + VOSDAL: 4.816m
+ Day 1: 6.020m

Just so you're all aware, I won't be able to bring you updates on Thurs and Fri this week, or Monday next week.

I would have slipped back in to the shadows, but the news about the iPlayer 30-day window has revealed the information I have been waiting for.

Deep Breath received over 2 million hits on iPlayer. The performance pack hasn't been released yet, however.

In addition, comparative figures from 2012 - courtesy of The Co=Ordinator, from the 3rd week of Sep.

Cheers as always, Yog. So probably looking at 6.8ish in the finals again.

Anyone know when we might get an idea how it's been doing on iplayer?

Edit: You psychic, CD93?

Having correctly predicted that The Gatherer would be an inactive member again by the end of the week, I would like to say so, yes....

...but then some things are just too obvious.

AI of 82, enjoy the rest of the fallout.