Each to their own. I personally found it one of the most absorbing and least boring episodes in a long time.

Heaven Sent is still No. 1 on iPlayer.

'Face the Raven' hung about a bit on iplayer too. Do we get the consolidated figures for that today? Am expecting a better timeshift than the week befores...

6.05m

Low time shift for that one.

I believe more people are watching X Factor on time shift than used to so that may be having an effect on the time shift figures for DW?

Only 6.05m for Face the Raven?

Damn, I'm trying to be positive... I don't know guys, maybe we're panicking over nothing, perhaps this is just how it's going to be from now on.

At least there consistent, nothing tooooo low. Perhaps these are just our ratings now, maybe things will rise when Moffat leaves, but personally I think he has been an amazing showrunner.

Eh, it is what it is, just keep swimming.

It changed in that the AI's stopped featuring that of BARB votes as well, which seemed to increase it. Not sure how it exactly works, but ever since then the AI's have been lower (except for Day, but, well, that was Day of the Doctor.)

I don't personally think the show is in danger.

I just think going from a gradual decline to a sudden drop is a sign that something isn't right.

I just hope when the show eventually returns the team in charge have a good think about what they got wrong this year (or, indeed, what they got wrong in Season 8) that led to so many people switching off.

Fooling themselves that all is just fine and dandy and that they know best is just going to drive away even more viewers.

Or what they got right and build on that.

Yeah, that's a few hundred thousand less than I was expecting. Shame, thought it was a cracker. Still, at the risk of becoming a broken record, these aren't *bad* figures, just not as good as previous years. Debates will no doubt be taking place. (I mean outside of the forums, there!) And I guess a drop was always going to happen sometime, you know? It did in C20 Who. That zig zagged quite a bit over the decades. I am retrospectively affronted that the brilliant 'Inferno' went down to about 5m in 1970. With 3 channels. And as for some great stories in Season 18 being trashed by 'Buck Rogers'? Appalling! *

* I was watching Buck Rogers. I was Pre-fan, it was glossy, and had a kid's crush on Wilma.

Worth noting to counterpoint the lower AI (which stunned me tbh but there you go), that it's currently 2nd on IMDB's list of Doctor Who episodes, averaging 9.6 ahead of Day of the Doctor and behind Blink, although tbf at this stage it has a significantly lower sample size and it'll be interesting to see where it ends up when it levels out.

The War Games had consistently low viewing figures and even hit below 4m at one point, yet I wouldn't be alone in considering it a true Doctor Who classic.

Ah that explains it. I didnt realise there was a negative/positive us versus them war going on on this site. Thats a pity because it means you dont get a genuine response here,just reaction to each other. That explains why sites are so different in what they say.The dynamics of the site become more important than the show.

When I was looking up series 3 of NuWho earlier today I noticed that Blink had the lowest rating of the series, rating even less than the Daleks definitely aren't in Manhattan nonsense.

Really? I couldn't stand Daleks in Manhatten, definitely one of the worst Dalek stories of all time in my opinion, followed by Victory. Resurrection and Revelation were dull, I found, but at least not terrible.

So long as the show continues to do well internationally I stunt think it's in any danger. It HAS become a niche show rather than a mainstream show and as such it might not keep the mainstream timeslot. That days, I dont know when else it could be shown.

Rightly or wrongly, the show isn't as accessible as during the RTD years. What that means is that the large section of the audience that wants to watch TV and not think about it have nothing to latch onto.

It's only the show's international popularity which is preventing fans having a meltdown, tbh.

Look at Musketeers. The first series had a consolidated audience of around 6.3 million and even then people were surprised when it was recommissioned for a second series.


Look at Atlantis. Here's an interesting report about the first series in October 2013:


http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/rating...062956.article

4.4m is criticised but it's better than many DW episodes have managed this series and 5.1m as a slot average seems very optimistic in 2015. DW has been nowhere near that as an overnight figure.

As I've said before, I don't think the show's near being cancelled but perhaps Colin's fingers are around Peri's throat.

Speaking for myself, I couldn't disagree more! This whole series has just flown by for me, and I've enjoyed every episode to different degrees. I've certainly never struggled to reach the end of an episode. The only issue I've had this year is that the two parters have meant that the episodes have lacked the diversity of previous years. 6 or 7 different stories, as opposed to the usual 10 or 11, taking into account the usual number of two parters per series. I think that has made series 9 seem much shorter than usual, which is my only complaint.


Me too!


Stay positive, because there's no reason not to. It's going to take more than an off year to take the Doctor off the air again for more than a break year or so. If things need to be tinkered with to give the ratings a shot in the arm, that will happen. A 2016 break to get people hungry for TARDIS travel again, then a new companion and a move back to earlier in the year for 2017. Quite possibly a new Doctor along with a new showrunner the following year. Doctor Who is one show that will never struggle to renew itself and it's too much of a cash generator for the Beeb these days for them to just lose interest. So I'm not worried about current ratings at all.

These figures speak for themselves:


As things stand, the difference between series 8 and series 9 is well over a million less viewers. The final rating for 'Sleep No More' is only about 500,000 more than what Broadcast Now said was the average overnight for the slot in 2013.

[and those AIs are shocking within the context of what the show was achieving between series 2 and series 7].

The audience share is a worry too.

The size of the overall Saturday night audience is about the same (if not bigger) as five years ago. Its just that fewer people are choosing to watch Doctor Who..

I realise this is covered to a degree by the 'changing viewing habits' argument.

But when you match the audience share dropping over five years from 39% to 20% and final viewing figures dropping by 23% over the same period, the 'changing viewing habits' argument begins to look a bit dodgy.

I'm certainly not claiming that the numbers aren't down. They absolutely are. But there are many cumulative reasons as to why that is, as I've mentioned in earlier posts. And yes, the AI is down, which absolutely shows that some of this season's theme may have been a misstep for any non-Whovian type viewers. This year has felt very much like a series for the most dedicated of fans, of which I consider myself a part. On that level it worked, because I've been captivated nearly every week, but that does mean that the average viewer is going to feel alienated and not enjoy the story as much. A ratings gamble, for sure, but as it seems to have pleased 6 out of the 7 million viewers from last year and kept them watching, maybe it was worth that gamble.

To get the lost audience back, next series will need to be promoted well, and be a lot more easily accessible story wise, possibly more monster-of-the-week again, but that can easily be done. There's nothing here that can't be corrected, and for those of us who have loved series 9, there's nothing to correct anyway.

I agree that there's nothing that can't be corrected but, for me, that involves getting shot of both Capaldi and Curly Tot.

As for series 9 appealling to the most dedicated fans, and I know plenty of dedicated fans who haven't liked it at all!

For me, I would keep Capaldi around for as long as he was willing to play the part! I'm absolutely loving this incarnation of the Doctor! Moff, though? Absolutely nothing against the guy, because I've enjoyed pretty much all of his work on the show, but I am ready for a new flavour to the series, so I think a new showrunner is probably due now.

Bonus points for Curly Tot, by the way! Made me smile!

But that's just it - is there any hope in getting them back at this stage, no matter how much promotion you run before broadcast? I think it's clear that series 9 started off very low and just got worse because there was an exodus after series 8. The show just didn't hit the spot Tennant and Smith did.

By the same token, if Capaldi is still in the role for series 10, it will live on the merits of series 9, a series which hasn't gone down well.

I expect series 10 to lose even more viewers, not regain old lost ones. Even if Moffat is replaced, it's the actor who people associate with specific eras of the show, so a lot of people won't give it another go until there's a new Doctor, Tardis set and theme tune.

The current plinky-plonk-plinky-plonk theme with its Stylophone melody has to be the worst thing Murray Gold has ever done on the show. Perhaps getting someone who doesn't like a piece of music to repeatedly remix it for ten years isn't the best idea?