Doctor Who Season Opener Breaks Time-Shift Records

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
17,672
0
0
Doctor Who Season Opener Breaks Time-Shift Records

The BBC says it is proud that Doctor Who is leading the charge into a new era of TV watching.

The first episode of the sixth season of Doctor Who has entered the record books as the most recorded show in British TV history. The episode, called "The Impossible Astronaut," was time-shifted - which is to say, recorded and then viewed within a week of the original broadcast - by more than 4 million people.

Edward Russell, brand manager for the show, said that the figures proved something that the BBC had known for a while: that the way people were watching TV was changing. He added that he, and everyone who worked on Doctor Who, was proud that the show was at the forefront of these new viewing habits. The BBC also noted that the Doctor Who website had received records numbers of visitors, and millions of people had watched the exclusive content that it offered.

It's an interesting contrast to earlier fears [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109547-Doctor-Who-Ratings-Rise-in-the-US-Fall-in-the-UK] that the episode might wind up being the lowest viewed season premiere since the show relaunched in 2005. The overnight figures for the episode came in at an average of 6.5 million, but when the final figures came out - which included the full week's worth of time-shifted viewing - the total came in at 8.8 million, putting the episode ahead of "New Earth" from 2006, and "Smith and Jones" from 2007.

Source: BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110520_01/The_Impossible_Astronaut_Breaks_Records]




Permalink
 

Canadish

New member
Jul 15, 2010
675
0
0
Oh crap. I assume this means they're gonna carry on with this new style then?
I'm never gonna hear the end of it from the classic Doctor Who fans...
 

comadorcrack

The Master of Speilingz
Mar 19, 2009
1,657
0
0
Cool. :) I'm always happy to see stuff I like doing well. In all honesty I'm really enjoying this season of doctor who (After being a bit bored by the last few) so Heres hoping it'll continue to do well :).
 

Trivun

Stabat mater dolorosa
Dec 13, 2008
9,831
0
0
Haha! Excellent! I knew Doctor Who wasn't going downhill, and the viewing figures finally show that! Just one quick question, because I like being a statistic. Do time-shift viewers include those who don't record it, but watch it online via a medium like BBC iPlayer?
 

IndianaJonny

Mysteron Display Team
Jan 6, 2011
813
0
0
Logan Westbrook said:
Hmm, the BBC page doesn't indicate how many of these viewers were in the UK/US/elsewhere. Any idea of the more regionalised stats?

Dr Who is bizarre for me because I always feel like "fine, I'll give it a second chance" and end up enjoying each episode anyway.
 

Canadish

New member
Jul 15, 2010
675
0
0
HankMan said:
Glad to see the Doctor's low ratings have been properly diagnosed.
I've heard finding these figures out can be a fairly large operation.
I'm just sick of hearing about how the new season is a drop in quality. I'm sure hurts the directors feelings.
 

TsunamiWombat

New member
Sep 6, 2008
5,870
0
0
Canadish said:
HankMan said:
Glad to see the Doctor's low ratings have been properly diagnosed.
I've heard finding these figures out can be a fairly large operation.
I'm just sick of hearing about how the new season is a drop in quality. I'm sure hurts the directors feelings.
Well, theres a treatment for everything. I'm glad to hear Dr. Who is in stable condition now and it's diagnosis is promising.
 
Feb 13, 2008
19,430
0
0
Canadish said:
Oh crap. I assume this means they're gonna carry on with this new style then?
I'm never gonna hear the end of it from the classic Doctor Who fans...
Hey, some of us LOVE both the Old and New Who.

[sub]Apart from the Bertie Basset Monster and the Macra, but I digress...[/sub]
 

ZeoAssassin

New member
Sep 16, 2009
388
0
0
HankMan said:
Glad to see the Doctor's low ratings have been properly diagnosed.

sorry couldn't resist =p

anyway yeah not surprising but pretty funny non the less...going from the lowest to the highest in less than a month. i wonder how many potentially good shows were canceled because of numbers like this?
 
Apr 17, 2009
1,751
0
0
Hah, knew it! People were out enjoying the sun (a rare sight in dismal Britain) instead of sitting inside in front of the box. Same thing happened during the finale of Eccleston's run

IndianaJonny said:
Logan Westbrook said:
Hmm, the BBC page doesn't indicate how many of these viewers were in the UK/US/elsewhere. Any idea of the more regionalised stats?
Depends what they're getting their data from. If, for example, they're counting views on the BBC iPlayer then that's UK only
 

Wicky_42

New member
Sep 15, 2008
2,468
0
0
I like how a series about a Time Lord is having its ratings counted by time-shifting - so very fitting :D
 

TimeLord

For the Emperor!
Legacy
Aug 15, 2008
7,508
3
43
See. It was due to the fact we had our first day of sunlight in years that day xD

Also, I missed this thread and sent this in in a news submission yesterday xD
The_root_of_all_evil said:
Canadish said:
Oh crap. I assume this means they're gonna carry on with this new style then?
I'm never gonna hear the end of it from the classic Doctor Who fans...
Hey, some of us LOVE both the Old and New Who.

[sub]Apart from the Bertie Basset Monster and the Macra, but I digress...[/sub]
You didn't like the old Macra? I thought they were cool ^^