I think some hope ratings vindicate their own displeasure. Having started to fixate on things they don't like they hope the non-forum-visiting Who watcher switches off over those things. Even if ratings did start to drop they would probably not really know if it is over the same niggles, but would claim so.

It looks as though Who has found a regular-ish audience of somewhere between 7 and 9 million. As long as they can keep pumping out stuff of similar appeal and new youngsters keep switching on to replace the teenage dropouts (teens change habits and tastes in all sorts of ways. There is little the Doctor Who showrunner can do about it), things should be ok for a while.

Even if the regular audience drops to, say, between 5 and 7 million, would that necessarily bring the ghost of Micheal Grade immediately swinging his scythe? Especially if that 5-7 million were still enjoying it hugely and the show was not a critical embarrassment. I don't know.

Sadly I think you're right... which I never really understand (uh, the vindication thing, not you being right). If you're a fan of the show and don't like the way its going why on earth would you WANT it to fail? Surely you'd want the ratings to be great so that they get time to fix it, doubly so on THIS show were the entire production staff changes on a regular basis and the entire concept is based around changes in cast, situations etc.


Not a chance. 5 - 7 is still ridiculously high figures in this day and age. Ultimately I think it'd come down to the overall picture for Who - how it's doing in foreign markets, what the costs are looking like compared to returns, DVD and merchandise sales etc - and if the BBC have anything else to replace it with. Look at the figures for everything else that's not a reality show around that time and you'd probably need to find a show that gets at least 4 million to be a viable replacement and that's VERY risky. Plus Who is rapidly becoming the poster child for non-traditional viewing with both timeshift and iPlayer, ideal for convincing everyone WHY they need to put so much money into on-line services and the like.

Apparently timeshift for day of the moon was an additional 1.91 million! total 7.3 million (36.7%)

Indeed, so far Matt's second series is doing slightly better than David Tennant's second:

2007:

Smith And Jones - 8.71m
The Shakespeare Code - 7.23m


2011:

The Impossible Astronaut - 8.86m
Day Of The Moon - 7.30m

But it is all apples and pears. People are always saying bank holiday weekends and good weather etc., competition on other sides make a big different to the ratings. Surely that applies across just as much over Series? Plus the affect of multiple methods of viewing coming more and more into existence.

Bit silly, all this ratings stuff really. DW is doing fine (alongside the top soaps....which is what really counts ). I hope Merlin does the same on its return!

That's Dr who fans for you. We're paranoid after what happened in 1989.

The 'Curse of the Black Spot' received a AI of 86



Here's the top 20 programmes of last week.

1 THE ROYAL WEDDING (BBC) (FRI 0800) 13.59
2 BBC NEWS (FRI 1340) 10.76
3 EASTENDERS (TUE 1930) 9.59
4 BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT (SAT 2001) 9.27
5 EASTENDERS (FRI 2000) 9.13
6 CORONATION STREET (MON 2033) 8.94
7 EASTENDERS (MON 1959) 8.87
8 CORONATION STREET (MON 1934) 8.71
9 EASTENDERS (THU 1929) 8.30
10 CORONATION STREET (FRI 1932) 7.90
11 CORONATION STREET (THU 2031) 7.89
12 CORONATION STREET (FRI 2030) 7.33
13 DOCTOR WHO ''Day of the Moon' (SAT 1801) 7.30
14 EMMERDALE (THU 2000) 7.24
15 EMMERDALE (FRI 1901) 6.85
16 EMMERDALE (MON 1903) 6.82
17 EMMERDALE (TUE 1901) 6.74
18 THE SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER (MON 2105) 6.70
19 MASTERCHEF (WED 2100) 6.60
20 EMMERDALE (WED 1900) 6.55

So the fourth most popular programme outside of the traditional soaps, and the second most popular programme if you also discount extraordinary news events such as the Royal Wedding.

...or the week's most popular scripted entertainment programme outside of the soaps. Yes, quite the 'ratings disaster' that the 'Mail was talking about, eh?

I think "the UK's most popular non-soap drama" fits quite nicely.

Or you could go as far and say that it is the highest rated sci-fi drama series currently broadcast in the world.

Fringe on Fox in America only had 3.3 million viewers for its finale last week.

The Doctor's Wife over nights were apparently:

5.9m (28.6%) and in the number 20 spot in the over night chart thingy...

3rd most watched programme after Eurovision and BGT. Still, slightly surprised by that though.

I think the time shift figures will bump it up by a good 1.5m, with the final figure being around 7.4m - our Doctor's doing still well

not getting in to any debates on ratings here this year, but just want to point out the episode ended five minutes early last night, so those figures include all the people that turned off/switched over as soon as the episode ended, therefore the actual overnights were probably more like 6.1 million in reality if you look at the raw data. Obviously this will be reflected in the final ratings.

What are the official viewing figures for Doctor Who series 6 so far?

Oh no argument, I just thought with the hype we might see an increase in viewer numbers in the live figures this week.

I didn't notice ANY argumentative tones in your post....did my answer come across like it did? Sorry about that

Nah, sorry just a turn of phrase on my part. Was meant as a "I agree with you they're not bad..." but they're not what I expected from the live figures.

The Impossible Astronaut - 8.86m (43.3%)

Day of the Moon - 7.30m (36.7%)

The Curse of the Black Spot final might be available later on today, but will be released tomorrow.

The overnights seem to be settling around 6m, so a final of 7m for the rest of the series is pretty good. I think so far this series is in line to be the 3rd highest rated series so far of Nu-Who!

Good, solid, ratings performance. WIll probably add another 1.5 to 2 million on Timeshift.

Once again the Moff delivers.

Well, in this case it was Neil Gaiman who delivered, along with Matt, Karen, Arthur and Suranne! Not sure about Michael Sheen though...

DW got higher ratings than the FA Cup final. That makes me happy. (I'm not really a football fan. )

Paint drying deserved higher ratings than that bilge.

The cup final was one of the most turgid, tedious games of soccer I have seen in a long long time.