thank you for posting those.

This looks good - is it in line with other episodes so far this year?

As I said, Day 2 should actually say 5.9m ish in order to compensate for the time slot being wrong.

How's it doing? Lowest day 1 shift, very good day 2 shift.

Thanks very much for posting those.


There was no hair-tearing. I asked a simple honest question in a ratings thread full of defensive people and no one answered. I smelled a rat, then the repeat was axed in favour of a dead TV show, and now my suspicions are confirmed, on both counts.

I suppose the reason for such terrible ratings for the BBC3 repeat of a season opener with the lowest ever opening ratings because everyone was busy watching live rugby instead is that those missing viewers were also busy watching a rugby repeat on ITV7 or something...

Either way, I think it's even more embarrassing that old repeats got well over twice the audience of a brand new season opener that was missed by millions of viewers a few days before due to them watching live rugby instead.

Just been reading the War Games Fact of Fiction in the latest DWM! A monthly pleasure, the Magazine. Interesting take in Public Image on the ratings for episode One, too.

On another note, will be interesting to see the plus 28 days figures. Anyone got an idea when we'll get them for Magcian's Apprentice? End of the month?

Can you give an idea of what it says? Would be an interesting comparison to modern times.

Sorry, Public Image was discussing episode 1 of series 9, not The War Games! Although I think I'm right in saying that story dipped under the 4m mark at some point? Even the magnificent Inferno the following year slipped to about 5m, I believe. Who has always had fluctuating figures over the years, which is why I'm disappointed the current run is seeing a drop, cos I think it's been good rather than religious zeal!, but don't see the need to panic about it. And I was there in 1989 when the show got cancelled, so am not complacent!

I wrote an angry letter in 1985 when the show was put on hiatus. Shamefully, I'd stopped watching by 1989

The main point made in the Public Image article is that the series opener was not done any favours by unusually lack-lustre promotion this time.
There was not enough emphasis that it featured the Daleks and Davros for instance.
The writer also makes the very valid point that ending a trailer with the line "same old same old" is not exactly going to be a crowd puller!

Very true, in fact I think a forum member here on DS actually made that very point about the "same old, same old" part of the trailer.

I think Davros was kept as a secret, wasn't he? Perhaps that was a mistake.

But I must admit the publicity did feel very tired, which is a surprise when you think there are now nine-month gaps between the Christmas episode and the new season premiere.

Well, it certainly wasn't the best line to use!

I don't know about Davros. I didn't know the estimable Mr Bleach was in it so it was a great moment. Guess its a judgement call re promotion and spoilers. JNT famously refused a Radio Times cover for Eathshock because he didn't want to give the game away, and my 12 year old self was surprised and thrilled at Earthshock's reveal of the Cybermen....

Pardon my defensiveness but it seems perfectly logical to me that a repeat of a program that was originally shown a year ago would get higher ratings than a repeat which was shown only a few days previously.

Ohh ohh, that was me Do I win a prize?

But as I pointed out, millions of people didn't watch it a few days earlier - they were watching the rugby.

You also forget that the BBC3 repeat used to get hundreds of thousands of viewers every week, after the Saturday viewing got millions more.

It's not surprising that year old episodes not available on iPlayer might get more hits than an episode that is available on iPlayer. For one episode the only (legit, free) way of seeing it is BBC Three, for the other iPlayer any time or BBC Three single fixed time. My PVR failed to record GWD so I just flipped to iPlayer. Didn't even think about BBC Three.

Maybe BBC Three repeats of things have simply had their day.

I'm not saying the fact it's now been stopped is a sign that everything is rosy. Possibly not. But there seems more at play than straightforward doom and gloom.

The Austrailian ratings continue to be great (Per usual)

You see, you say it here and it ends up in a professional publication!

hmmm yeah the promo was weak this year. Both a lack of it and poor quality when it arrived not least the trailers which weren't up to the usual standard. Hadnt thought about that line before now but blimey yeah its a bit of an own goal. Way to inspire audience fatigue!

Fellow FM's approbation. Can there BE a greater prize? No? (Ooh, that was a bit Chandler Bing.)

Okay....a speedboat?

Several media savvy pundits on twitter complained about "same old, same old". They thought it obviously rather stupid.

I thought I was just missing the promotion - but it seems it really was all a bit lacklustre. And I said in the review threads that I thought TMA/TWF was a poor way to open the series. How to put a good pair of episodes in exactly the wrong sequence.

Didn't it used to get around a million viewers in Australia when Tennant and Smith were in it? These days it seems to get about half a million.

The most recent figure of 501,000 is an overnight figure and for the five major cities only.

Previous weeks (going backwards), were 511,000, 428,000, 541,000 and 653,000

In 2012 the figures for the same metric were typically around 540,000 - 560,000

I don't know what the comparable figures including regional and timeshift viewers are.

This is, of course, shorn of any useful knowledge of other factors. It's clear that Doctor Who was on Saturdays in 2012 and Sundays now. But what the timeslots were, the competition etc., no idea. Nor what might have happened in terms of moving to alternative forms of viewing (TV based timeshift, tablets, phones etc.).

Poster on GB has reported the 28 day rating for ep 1 to be 6.84m, up 300k from the 7 day figure.

The thing about Smart TVs these days is that you seamlessly watch iPlayer on your nice big TV, which is a much more attractive option than watching on your PC or laptop.

Exactly, the people that diss others that watch on Iplayer by saying something along the lines of "why would you want to watch on some crappy little monitor?"

I have 2, 42 inch smart TVs in my house and often watch on demand services on them. I don't know if there is a difference in picture between them and watching when broadcast but I certainly can't tell the difference. Both methods are a very good picture.