Dunno if I'd consider 6.15 a 'main' evening slot... For me, that's really anything that starts after 7pm.

But yep, there's nothing disastrous about the overnight numbers when pretty much everything else, even the peak-time shows, were around much the same ballpark

I can't really say anything - because I only watched DW and James May.

How much does Downton timeshift? I'm blown away by that figure I thought it was supposed to be, like, the biggest Christmas thing.

It definitely is - and certainly is so on Christmas Day. After all, they put their big hitter SCD on at 5pm. Different rules on Christmas Day!

Can't see it has a hope in hell of surpassing the ratings of last year's special and will likely fall behind the last few (which were in the 10-13million-ish mark when the final figures came in). I think it just shows again that the casual audience have mostly drifted off.

Drifted off from the TV entirely, apparently.

The doomsayers will have a field day from BBC to C5. At least the latest series performed "exceptionally well."

To be fair, it's clearly much of a muchness for BBC1 this Christmas Day. It got almost as many viewers as Miranda and Strictly.

Ah, so my 7m prediction was optimistic, then. Think only Eastenders and MMB managed over 7m.

Popped into the ratings thread on the UK TV forum, and it looks like the least watched Christmas Day figures ever by some distance. Suspect Who will time shift to about 8.5 - 9m ish and end up in the top 5 most watched at least. Disappointing, but not a disaster in the context of the day's ratings in general, I'd say.

DS Report: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...oZy01HfsAisD4n

(discounting the BBC / ITV joint figure for The Queen)

There is never any point in taking a single statistic removing it entirely from context and then analysing it as if on its own it means something.

It performed as well as it should have given the general drop in viewing figures around it.

It will eventually be seen by far, far more viewers in the UK than any of the other shows in the list.

Then you can consider the global audience.

It is also the only one that will be remembered, watched and of relevance 10 years from now

I think people forget that there is more DW on TV than ever before. We are flooded with it, different series, different channels, different eras.....every day. It is a new phase for the show.

It is a good time to be a Who fan. It's a great show and provides some of the best TV on offer. But if you want to make yourself feel better by using yesterday's figures in some meaningless support of some negative random argument you are making...go ahead.... it's a free country.

That viewing figure was really shocking! Seventh overall is definitely not what Doctor Who is used to and 6.3 million is uncharacteristically low.
That said, everything seems to have lost about 2 million viewers on last year. I wonder why that is?

Nevertheless, despite this unusually low overnight, as always I'm sure Doctor Who will claw back a load of viewers via time-shift.

I'm more surprised at how ratings were down for everything this Christmas

and yet Mrs Brown's Boys is the most-watched? I mean, seriously...?

It was last year also... and that dropped just short of 2m since then, too!

It's underwhelming, but then we have spent the last few years watching overnight ratings continue to fall across the board - so perhaps this is just the way of things. Anybody who singles out Doctor Who is making a mistake.

Bloody hell, everything tanked didn't it?

I saw that Who figure and was annoyed but then everything else did equally badly and Who will probably time-shift better than most if not all of those.

Looking at at least 8.5 I suspect.

My Brothers Family have Sky+ Doctor Who. They will probably watch it tomorrow.

We have got to wait for the final figures including iPlayer views.

That is the way tings are going for all TV.

Overnight figures are no longer important.

Anyone have the AI? It might be interesting to see the AI for all the shows on BBC1 Christmas night.

AI is 82. Business as usual in terms of 2014. I've learned to live with these marginally lower AIs

Third on iplayer at the moment, with just 2 Eastenders episodes above it. The time shift should be very healthy as per. Can see Who overtaking Midwife, Miranda and Strictly. Maybe not Mrs Browns Boys. Time will tell....

Overnight ratings belong to a bygone age. In the multi-channel / catch-up tv world of today, they aren't particularly important.

It's clear that Doctor Who has shed some casual viewers over the past few years - not a significant amount, but clearly slightly less people are watching, even allowing for catch-up.

However that's totally understandable. The revived show has been on our screens for nearly 10 years, an unprecedented amount of time in modern terms. It's seen off plenty of others shows during that period (Robin Hood, Merlin, probably Atlantis, as well as Torchwood) and has managed to retain a consistent viewing share. Naturally viewers are going to drop off. But overall, it's hardly cause for concern.

Doctor Who Christmas Special Update:

Live + VOSDAL: 6.337m
+ Day 1-3: 7.927m


Other selected Christmas Day programming + day 1-3 update:

SCD: 8.634m
Miranda: 8.287m
Call The Midwife: 8.914m
Eastenders: 8.727m
Mrs Brown's Boys: 9.487m

Emmerdale: 6.375m
Corrie: 7.515m
Downton Abbey: 7.021m

Thanks Yog.

I think Doctor Who will do its usual timeshift of around 2.5m.

So it's in 6th place after three days of catch up?

Sir Didymus @ GB was kind enough to scour news archives to piece together the Live+7 data for previous series (the BBC only released it for later ones).

They once again highlights Doctor Who's durability over almost a decade - with ratings down across the board this year, too (Christmas Day decided to highlight that for all to see)

Try telling that to the tabs

Doctor Who Christmas Special Update:

Live + VOSDAL: 6.337m
+ Day 1-3: 7.927m
+ Day 4: 8.078m


Other selected Christmas Day programming + day 1-4 update:

SCD: 8.747m
Miranda: 8.420m
Call The Midwife: 9.014m
Eastenders: 8.770m
Mrs Brown's Boys: 9.554m

Emmerdale: 6.395m
Corrie: 7.579m
Downton Abbey: 7.099m

Thanks Yog.

How is Top Gear doing?

Hmm. I think if Doctor Who was smashing it in the overnights people would be rushing here to argue the opposite; it's a convenient safety blanket to argue "well they don't matter anyway".

They do.

The comfort here is that Doctor Who is performing okay in the overnights. Not as well as it used to, and not as well as other shows. BUT if it continues to shed casual viewers then it could repeat the cultural legacy of the mid 80s: a show for a small band of nerds, lacking mainstream appeal.

It's not the case that no-one is watching Doctor Who, but it is the case that it's consolidating its audience rather than growing it.

Every show, even the biggest, inevitably sees contraction. Too much contraction and you can bet there'll be an impact on scheduling, which impacts on budget, which impacts on quality, which impacts on cultural appeal, which feeds back, etc.

When a show gets a "core" audience regardless, it will be used to buffer against ratings grabbers on rival channels so as to allow newer, untested and/or less successful on catch up programmes to have a fairer chance/room to breathe/, etc. There's a precedent for this approach with Doctor Who when it was put against Coronation Street in the 80s. The argument: well everyone who will watch it, will.

Overnights do matter, and will continue to matter in the years to come — in fact, more so. As audiences inevitably shrink for all 'as live' broadcasts the shows able to buck the general trend to become "appointment viewing" will be given more attention.

Think of overnights as opening weekend box-office sales: they're not always an indicator of overall impact or popularity of success. Some films are growers or do better in DVD sales, etc - but the opening weekend can make or break overall perception of success.