This wasn't so long ago, 2 years to be exact...

Doctor Who regeneration tops Christmas Day TV ratings


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25518352

This relates to me. We were having a fairly drunken game of Yartzee when Doctor Who was on. Caught up with the episode at 11pm - still slightly under the influence.

I watched it again this morning - I enjoyed it much more. It's a fun story, with Peter and Alex being fab in every scene - they worked very well together.

From the BBC news website:

1. The Queen (BBC One/ITV) 7.2m (6.1m on BBC One and 1.1m on ITV)
2. Downton Abbey - The Finale (ITV) 6.6m
3. Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special (BBC One) 6.5m
4. Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special (BBC One) 6.4m
5. Stick Man (BBC One) 6.4m
6. Call The Midwife (BBC One) 5.8m
7. Doctor Who (BBC One) 5.8m
8. EastEnders (BBC One) 5.7m
9. Coronation Street (ITV) 5.6m
10. Brave (BBC One) 5.5m

Doctor Who beat Eastenders AND Corrie. Yes!!

If it makes you happy, EastEnders couldn't manage it for Boxing Day, either. To be fair, it was up against some tough competition on the other side..........

Really low Christmas ratings on all channels this year it seems!

Glad to see Doctor Who beat Eastenders and Corrie! And it's only 1.4m less than the highest rated show (which was across 2 channels as well!)

Just shows you people obviously don't watch much live TV these days!

AI of 82...

It probably doesn't make much difference to the ratings, but there are a lot of viewers that have been unable to view much television this Christmas due to the terrible flooding this year. Hope forum members have been able to stay safe.

The figures for Strictly are fascinating considering 12m tuned in for the final, less than a week earlier!

While a Christmas special is clearly less important, this really shows how live TV viewing on Christmas Day is declining

The Christmas Strictly never rates as high as the series.

I think you may be right. It appears as if the BBC have a computer programme which does the scheduling for them based on a very simple formula.

Christmas Top of The Pops
Queen's Speech
A 3D animated family film
Doctor Who
Strictly Come Dancing
Eastenders
Miranda/Mrs Brown's Boys
Call the Midwife
Michael McIntyre comedy show

It just doesn't seem to change or feel fresh and inspired. Just practically the same formula every year.
Any changes year on year are very gradual where only one element may change at a time.

It's a formula that worked when they had a lot of popular shows of broader appeal but not anymore. Back in the 90s we had a popular new(ish) movie in the early afternoon then we had Generation Game, Only Fools, Birds of a Feather and Eastenders. Families could watch from the Queens speech right through to 9pm and be watching shows for the whole family. Times change and technology has had an impact on ratings but this year's offering was weak because, sadly, the BBC no longer has a large collection of current family shows it can call upon. Doctor Who hasn't been getting the ratings it once did, nor have the soaps. Call The Midwife is popular but is it really a family show? Would an 8-year old sit and watch it with the parents? Ditto Downton Abbey on ITV. These shows are targeted at such different audiences that it encourages PVRing rather than sitting down with the family to watch TV and recover from a large Christmas Dinner.

Its worth remembering two things about those viewing figures:

1/ The available Christmas Day audience was much bigger two years ago. Millions have people simply don't watch TV on Christmas Day now, and that's across the board.
2/ Millions of viewers tuned in for the final 5 minutes of "The Time of the Doctor" - in other words, they tuned in literally for the regeneration, not the episode itself. This does considerably boost the average ratings for the episode.

That said, there are other factors at play with Who's viewing figures and it will be interesting to see how it will all land when the finals are available.

It's on days like this that I really miss Yog's updates.

Face The Raven 7 Day -> 28 Day

6,055 -> 6,509m

What was the 7 Day -> 28 Day ratings for Turn Left?

Unfortunately you'll have to seek out the parallel world where BARB made that data available five years sooner.

Heaven Sent went from 6.19m to 6.60m in 28 day ratings.

So, based on those episodes putting on .4 to .5 million at 28 days, The Husbands of River Song should end up at around 6.2 to 6.3 million. Respectable figures. Could be more or less depending on whether the catch up viewing pattern for Christmas Day programming is different from the regular series. I have a feeling that Christmas Day catch up growth will be bigger than the regular series.

Don't forget the time shift after 7 days. Doctor Who could be looking at a rating of a 7 million before you take into account the 28-day rating data.

Yeah, I think it will hopefully be over 7m after the 7 day rating. So final figure after plus 28 not far off 8m is my guess. That would be okay. Especially compared to other dramas; particularly other "niche genre" dramas, not naming any names. These are not bad ratings in the grand scheme of things.

Ah. My mistake. The .4 to .5 million increase is from 7 days to 28 days. We haven't had the 7 day figures yet. Obviously.

So, yes, the final 28 day figure could easily top 7 million.

The Husbands of River Song: 7.7m

That's pretty good. One of Capaldi's highest isn't it?

It would be good if viewers used the Christmas special as a taster for season 10 and perhaps came back for the 2016 premiere (whenever that is).

Yeah, it's a solid figure overall and Doctor Who does still seem to be one of the falling number of shows that perform better at Christmas than they do elsewhere.

In truth, I might have hoped for a slightly higher time shift than 2m. Still very significant, of course, but we're used to seeing the show leading the way by that measure. This time it was rather left behind by the timeshifts of the other big hitters on the day (Mrs Brown at 3m, Midwives at 3.5m and Downton at a massive 4m).

That's a great result. So, the 28 days figure could be over 8 million?