In the face of actual concrete evidence to audiences’ declining interest in the series, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has admitted that the series’ current ratings are far from where he would like them to be.
Per actual reported numbers from UK television viewing data aggregator Barb, the latest Doctor Who series has been, to say the least, struggling to find its footing.
In terms of overnight ratings (i.e. the amount of views a given episode receives in the first 24-hours of its airing) the first six episodes of the 15th Doctor’s first proper season have averaged an abysmal 2 million viewers apiece, with a high of 2.62 million, as posted by the season’s fourth episode ’73 Yards’, and a season-and-franchise low of 2.04 million, as pulled in by the preceding episode ‘Boom’.
And unsurprisingly, the series’ consolidated viewership numbers aren’t any better, as in the respective seven-day time frames following their premieres, each outing only barely managed to double their overnight results:
- Episode 1 – Space Babies: 2.6 million overnight / 4.01 million seven-day
- Episode 2 – The Devil’s Chord: 2.2 million / 3.91 million
- Episode 3 – Boom: 2.04 million / 3.57 million
- Episode 4 – 73 Yards: 2.62 million / 4.058 million
- Episode 5 – Dot and Bubble: 2.12 million / 3.38 million
- Episode 6 – Rogue: 2.11 million / (Not yet posted)
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.”
Making note of the fact that despite its struggles, the series’ most reliable demographic has been under-30s, Davies then opined, “I was brought back in to bring in a youthful audience. That’s been massively successful.”
“The audience no one ever gets are the under-30s,” he told the magazine. “They just don’t watch television anymore. But those figures are astronomic for Doctor Who, it’s their top programme in that bracket.”
“I never thought it was possible, to be honest,” the showrunner admitted. “But according to the people who juggle the numbers, all targets have been reached and exceeded. The BBC are running around like mad things.”
Ultimately pressed as to whether he had received any updates regarding the series’ future after the current season, Davies reiterated, as he previously told Radio Times, that the prospect regarding any further adventures for the 15th Doctor was “still up in the air”.
The next episode of Doctor Who, ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’, will kick off the season’s two-part finale on June 15th.