What these ratings do mean is that the future of the series is assured, irrespective of the criticism of a tiny majority, entitled as they are to their opinion.

don't think it's future was ever in question Nige as we know there are the specials next year and a full series to follow in 2010.

people may critcise it but I don't think anyone wants the series to be cancelled..far from it.

I'm sure you're right BG, it's just that the amount and level of criticism vented by certain posters makes you wonder if they'd be happier if the programme wasn't on at all....

I don't think that is the case at all Nige. I can only speak for myself when I say that whilst some episodes work for me better than others, I would still want Who on the screen to debate and discuss than have none at all.

At the end of the day we will all have our favourite episodes/stories/writers and not everyone is going to agree with our own individual choices but that is what makes the forum a lively place of discussion and debate. I don't think people stick the boot in just for the sake of it. They normally have solid reasons as to why something didn't work for them in the same way you most probably do when something doesn't for you...whether it Who or another series.

Does this mean we should except 14 or 15 million viewers for the next series then...

Are you using the overnight shares to make that average? Because the final shares are often a good 2-4% higher than the overnights (the final share for 'Silence in the Library' was 28%, for example, and the final share for 'The Stolen Earth' was 42%). I think the average share for S4 will be about 39% by the time the final share for 'Journey's End' comes through.

The problem is that the final numbers aren't presented (to us) as "shares", only the number of people that watched the show within a week of its broadcast. So, I suspect all the above are based on overnights? Or have I got it wrong?

K

Yep, we do get the final shares - go to this thread on The DWF to find them (along with other eye-opening stats about reach), where an industry-type person collates all the info:

http://www.doctorwhoforum.com/showthread.php?t=177772

Thanks. V interesting. I've asked on their forum how they are calculated (ie. what are they a %age of). Assuming they're a friendly bunch, I'll let you know the answer...

K

OK, from what I can gather...

Someone takes the timeshifted stats for all the shows that were broadcast at the same time as DW to work out a total theoretical audience and presents the final share as a %age of that.

So, for example, imagine there were only two channels. At 7pm on a Sat evening, channel 1 had DW and got 15m viewers, channel2 had Primeval and got 10m viewers. So, the overnights would have DW at 60%, Primeval at 40%.

Now assume that half of each group taped the other prog for later watching.

Now DW gets 15+5=20m, Primeval gets 10+7.5=17.5m.

Total "timeshifted" audience = 37.5m, DW gets 53%, Primeval gets 47%.

K

In anticipation of getting the viewing figures of tonights episode in the morning I thought it might be a good idea to resurrect the ratings thread we had for the last series, since it does contain a lot of useful data and I don't think it really worked well last year having a new thread for each of the specials - there seemed a lot of misunderstandings around the normal figures the show got, for example!

The chart below reflects the final viewing figures for each episode of the four series that predate this one. For the purposes of recording I will be referring to this series as series 5 for simplicity (S5 in the chart), but appreciate others will view it as series 1 or 31!


In addition to this here are the final ratings for each of the specials to date:


Now, in terms of the overnight ratings for the opening episode of each series, so far they have broken down as follows:

With this being a new era for the show with a new cast it's very hard to gauge the kind of overnights we should reasonably expect for The Eleventh Hour tomorrow, but I think it's fairer to use the prior series openers as a point of reference than the number that watched the End of Time, because that episode aired on New Years Day and was the cumulation of a journey rather than the start of one.

It's also worth noting that HD figures are not officially included in BBC viewing figures (though I will add them in to my own unofficial tally here), so that also needs to be taken in to account.

I'm hoping for around the 8-8.5 million mark myself, but it could be more or less than that. I think anything over 7 million is okay, anything over 9 million amazing.

I think 8 - 8.5 million is a fair estimate. Could well be higher though.

My guess is 9 in the overnights

Hopefully 9 million.

There was a heck of lot of Doctor Who trending going on last nigh: Doctor Who drwho #Doctor Who and Matt Smith were all trending world wide, and Karen Gillan and Amy Pond were all trending in the UK.

Though twitter tends can be misleading: after all in made people think Jedward were popular!

They're saying 8 million unofficial figures on Gallifrey Base. 0.3 million for HD

8.3 million (38.4% share)

That includes 0.338m HD.

Good start...

Share up on the recent episodes as well, which had been in the low 30's.

on an OT note, apparently Ant and Dec got less than 4 million last night...

Fantastic start to the era!

It's also notable that DW had almost a three million lead on any other programme yesterday. The next highest rated show was OTR with 5.6 million.

Another couple of years and they'll be contestants on I'm a Celeb rather than presenters

Twitter is the weirdest kind of statistic-taking. It's like being in a large pub and picking up background conversations, interesting but it doesn't really tell you anything. I can't believe one website was trying to use Twitter to determine the results of the upcoming Election.

As for 8.3 million. That's a result I'd say. I expected 7 million-ish due to the earlier time slot. Comparable to other first episodes yet with a less favourable time slot. I think the Lord Moff will be delighted with that.

Partners in Crime had almost identical figures in the same slot in series 4 though.

If you look at the total number watching tv in the slot DW had compared to OTR you'll see that the number of viewers in total doesn't increase, so I see no evidence to support the notion it could have gotton more viewers later in the evening.

excellent!!

The number of viewers doesn't increase because OTR is yet another crappy talent show. If Who had been on in that slot, I think it might have gained an extra million or so from people who weren't home from work in time to watch it.

Your missing my point, the total number of people watching TV do not support the idea that more would have watched it later. The total audience watching tv did not increase. There is no evidence to suggest that the show would have done better later, even if you look at comparable start times for other episodes that did start later - S&J for example.

Anyway, like it or not, I think we have to deal with the fact that this isn't going to change, the BBC will be delighted with how things panned out last night and will see it as vindication for their strategy, much like series 4's ratings did.