After Single Episode Spike, ‘Doctor Who’ Ratings Back In The Dirt And On The Decline
Despite the ostensible hopes of Disney, the BBC, and Russell T Davies, a sudden spike in the viewership numbers for Doctor Who has proven itself to be a one-episode phenomena rather than the start of a genuine ratings recovery.
Premiering on May 25th, the fourth episode of the The 15th Doctor’s first proper outing, 73 Yards, currently holds the title of ‘Best Performing Episode Of The Season’, having pulled in a total of 2.62 million and 4.058 million viewers in the first 24-hours and seven days, respectively, after its premiere.
Having come on the heels of the franchise-low overnight ratings of the season’s third episode, Boom, many among the series’ few remaining fans took this ratings sign as a potential sign that the series’ new progressive direction was finally catching on.
However, these hopes would soon be dashed just the next week with the premiere of Dot and Bubble, as rather than either exceeding or matching the success of its predecessor, the episode posted the substantially lower numbers of 2.12 million overnight and 3.38 million consolidated.
And instead of bouncing back, the series’ ratings only fell further in The Doctor’s next adventure, Rogue, which saw an overnight viewership of just 2.11 million viewers (as of writing, the episode’s seven-day consolidated numbers have yet to be reported, though they’re likely to be just as abysmal).
Notably, despite all the previous bravado seen from both himself and the series’ cast that Doctor Who’s new, more progressive and political soap box-y direction would bring in more fans than it pushed away, these low numbers have forced showrunner Russell T Davies to admit that his writing is currently missing the mark with audiences.
As relayed to the public courtesy of franchise-specific news outlet Doctor Who TV, asked during a recent interview for the physical July issue of UK entertainment news magazine Radio Times if he had any thoughts on these abysmal numbers, Davies asserted, “I’m very proud of it! You know, they might not be the ratings we’d love. We always want higher.”
“But they are building over the 28-day period,” he added, moving the goalposts for the series’ success. “Episode 1, ‘Space Babies’, is already up to 5.6 million and counting. So it is getting there.”
The next episode of Doctor Who, ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’, will kick off the season’s two-part finale on June 15th.
To this end, as confirmed by Davies himself, whether or not the overall series continues on after its upcoming season finale, as set to air next week, is still “up in the air“.
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