Doctor Who Ratings Rise in the US, Fall in the UK

Logan Westbrook

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Feb 21, 2008
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Doctor Who Ratings Rise in the US, Fall in the UK

There's good news and bad news for the Doctor, but which news he gets depends on where he is.

"The Impossible Astronaut," the premiere of season six of Doctor Who has managed the impressive feat of being both the highest and the lowest rated season premiere since the show relaunched in 2005. US ratings were higher than they've ever been, but unfortunately, in the UK, the reverse is true.

BBC America reports [http://press.bbcamerica.com/press-release.jsp?id=29003] that the episode received the highest ratings ever for the network, with 1.3 million viewers either watching live, or watching on DVR the same day. This is up 71,000 views from the channel's previous best, which was the premiere of season five of Doctor Who, last April. In the UK, however, the show had an average audience of 6.5 million, over two million less than the next lowest, the opener for season two, "New Earth." The BBC notes [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13180650] that that figure does not include people who watched the show on DVR, but still says that the episode is still unlikely to match, let alone beat, its predecessors.

While the figures seem a little bleak, at least on the Eastern side of the Atlantic, it's worth noting that not only was it a four-day weekend in the UK, but it was also very warm and sunny. It's quite likely that a lot of people decided to stay out in the sun, or were simply making good use of the long weekend and good weather by taking a weekend break. It will be interesting to see exactly how the figures change when the iPlayer and DVR numbers are in. While they might not beat previous year's viewing totals, they'll probably be much closer.


Source: via Blastr [http://blastr.com/2011/04/doctor-who-season-premier.php]


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Amarok

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Dec 13, 2008
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tghm1801 said:
It has nothing to do with the weather.
It's because Rory said 'gasoline'.
The show has gone to hell
I'm willing to meet you half way here. The low ratings in the UK WERE due to the weather, AND the show has gone to hell.

(but shows going to hell doesn't really affect ratings, check out the Simpsons for a prime example)
 

IAmTheVoid

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Apr 26, 2009
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The show's gone to hell? Huh? Sure, the first of this two parter wasn't all that impressive, but last season was pretty good. Where's all this pessimism come from?
 

DalekJaas

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Dec 3, 2008
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Russel T. Davies already ruined Doctor Who with his terrible writing and stupid plot lines, it can only go uphill from here. Last season was average, hoping this one will be better.
 

Hydro14

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I'd like to suggest another possible contributing factor: poor promotion and advertisement. They didn't exactly go out of their way to make sure people knew about it in the UK. I'd suggest looking at the ratings of the second episode when it arrives, or look at the number of people who've watched it on the BBC iPlayer since the original screening time to get a more accurate representation.

As Template has also commented, many people are saving on the cost of a TV license by using iPlayer.
 

luvd1

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Jan 25, 2010
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Give Rory his due, he was in America so probably scared incase someone got offended and shot him in the face for using a strainge word like petrol.
And yeah, it was a long Easter weekend with summer like weather. Most people here where away for the weekend. This is England. Who fekin knows when we'll have such weather again!?!
 

Cracker3011

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May 7, 2009
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Stupid weather, why is it only good over here when we have better things to do than be outside?!?
 

Andronicus

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Mar 25, 2009
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Well, I streamed it online, and I thought it was pretty good; I know I'm hanging out for the next episode. I wonder what the Australian ratings will be like when it airs here...
 

IAmTheVoid

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tghm1801 said:
I love the last season, don't get me wrong.
It's just gone all... well, let's just say it's catering to a different audience now.
An AMERICAN audience - which is completely different to a BRITISH audience.
For example, compare these two television shows - 'The Office (UK)' and 'The Office (US)'.
I'm very confused. It doesn't seem all that different to me. What was so different? I'm curious :)
 

JDKJ

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Oct 23, 2010
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TStormer said:
That is very strange, everyone I know was watching it. Like, everyone.
That observation is meaningless unless you tell us how many people you know. Is it 2 or 20 or 200?
 

forsinain42

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Oct 14, 2009
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6pm.

It was on at 6pm.

Doctor Who shouldn't be used by the BBC to prop up it's shit Saturday night lineup. It should be the centre, the gleaming jewel of the BBC.

Here are the 15 minute breakdowns.

17:30 ?.. 1.6 (13.0%)
17:45 ?.. 2.2 (16.4%)
18:00 ?.. 6.0 (35.3%)
18:15 ?.. 6.6 (37.1%)
18:30 ?.. 7.0 (37.5%)
18:45 ?.. 3.2 (18.5%)
19:00 ?.. 3.4 (19.4%)

See that jump? That's Doctor Who.

Now the 5 minutes...

17:55..3.91m
18:00..5.73m
18:05..5.98m
18:10..6.27m
18:15..6.43m
18:20..6.55m
18:25..6.79m
18:30..6.90m
18:35..6.96m
18:40..7.10m
18:45..3.88m

Note 2 things. One is that a 15 minute delay could have nabbed about 0.7 million more views and second note the drop off. People aren't just watching Who because its on. They are watching it because its Who!

Now what did the 11th Hour get on it's first night?

8.0m ..... (38.4%)

See that? About a single % less. It just shows that so many fewer people were watching TV. 1.5 million people didn't abandon Who, they abandoned ALL TV!

Not only that but it was the highest rated non-soap/reality show on during the whole week!

It did well. Ignore the media.
 

ramboondiea

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Oct 11, 2010
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well it was a sunny day, so most people really would have just gone outside instead, especially with how much episodes are repeated and all that,everyone i know who watched it, used i-player
 

Erja_Perttu

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May 6, 2009
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Well, I was out in the sunshine, so I iPlayer'd it, but damn near everyone I know was watching it.

I was simultaneously amused, annoyed and interested. I will keep watching.
 

Daverson

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Nov 17, 2009
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£500 says the reason it was rated so high in the US was because it was based in the US. Yanks take nationa... erm... "patriotism" to new extremes =p