In further proving that the show’s turn to fan antagonization and progressive social messaging serve no purpose but to inflate the ego’s of its production crew, the overnight viewing numbers for the third episode of Doctor Who‘s latest series have not only been confirmed as the worst of The 15th Doctor’s run thus far, but of the entire franchise overall.
Per a report assembled by UK television viewing data aggregator Barb and later relayed to the public by local news outlet Radio Times, the episode in question, Boom, managed to pull in just 2.04 million viewers during its May 18th broadcast premiere on BBC One.
By comparison, the first episode of returning showrunner Russell T Davies new series, Space Babies, debuted to 2.6 million overnight viewers, with those numbers falling to just 2.2 million for the second episode, The Devil’s Chord.
Boom‘s abysmal overnight numbers also confirm its spot as the series’ worst performing episode overnight, beating out the previous low of 2.2 million posted by the now-former record holders, the aforementioned The Devil’s Chord and the 2022 Easter special, The Legend of the Sea Devils.
While the BBC iPlayer streaming figures for the episode have yet to be released, given that these numbers only brought the preceding episodes’ final view counts to just 4.01 and 3.91 million respectively, it’s unlikely that they will have any significant impact on Boom‘s ratings.
Further, in speaking to just how rapidly interest in the series is declining among viewers, it should be noted that The 15th Doctor’s first full adventure (and the last one prior to the proper debut of Series 14), The Church on Ruby Road, managed to pull in a total of roughly 4.73 million overnight viewers during its Christmas Day premiere.
Of course, as noted above, the show’s crashing reception comes as no surprise given its cast and crew’s insulting of fans who disagreed with Davies’ self-admitted decision to use the series as a platform for overt progressive messaging.
Pressed for a response to such critics during an April 2024 interview with Variety‘s Ellise Shafer, Gatwa portrayed them as taking issue with his skin color and declared, “Don’t watch. Turn off the TV. Go and touch grass, please, for God’s sake.”
Offering their two-cents during a May 2024 interview with Slate‘s Isabelle Kliger, series’ guest-star and the Maestro actor Jinkx Monsoon declared, “I know a lot of people might not even watch this season of Doctor Who because it’s taking such a decisively queer step. However, if they watch it, I think they’ll see that we’re just actors playing characters. And if they don’t watch it, then who needs ’em? I truly believe that for every fan we lose to transphobia, we’re going to have two to three more coming in because they’re excited for trans representation.”
Likewise dismissing critics of his decision to ‘queer’ Doctor Who, Davies told Collider‘s Samantha Casey that while “Twitter might kick off, and in dark little corners people might argue, but that’s not the real world, the real world is one of acceptance and with battles to be fought and votes to be gained.”
The Doctor’s next adventure, 73 Yards, is currently scheduled to premiere – and likely continue the series’ current downwards rating spiral – on Disney Plus on May 25th.