By After the contentious Chris Chibnall-produced era, “Doctor Who” has arguably seen a return to form with Russell T. Davies back in charge and with new lead Ncuti Gatwa in control of the TARDIS on screen.
A big part of the resurgence is the show’s new home on Disney+ with the series released through the streamer worldwide aside from the UK where its still with the BBC.
Even then, it has adopted a different approach, with episodes available from midnight of the day or airing, meaning anyone in the UK can watch it for nearly a full day through BBC iPlayer before it is broadcast on TV at different times on Saturday evenings.
The result is a big chunk of the viewership isn’t watching it on TV and so overnight ratings are low – this weekend’s seventh episode receiving a total of just 2.02 million viewers on BBC One in overnight ratings.
Ratings for the season overall has drawn a lot of conjecture and discussion, and recently Davies himself spoke about the viewership drop during a BAFTA Q&A session (via Radio Times). He says:
“In coming back, I wanted to make it simpler and I wanted to make it younger. Those two things are often not discussed – you read reactions to it and people are missing that. It’s simpler and younger – and it is working.
The under-16s and the 16-34 audience as well is massive. It’s not doing that well in the ratings, but it is doing phenomenally well with the younger audience that we wanted.”
He reiterated and expanded on that point in a separate interview (via Doctor Who TV), saying:
“They might not be the ratings we’d love. We always want higher. But they are building over the 28-day period. Episode one, ‘Space Babies,’ is already up to 5.6 million and counting. So it is getting there. And actually, I was brought back to bring in a younger audience. That’s been massively successful.
The audience no one ever gets are the under-30s. They just don’t watch television anymore. But those figures are astronomic for Doctor Who, it’s their top program in that bracket. I never thought it was possible, to be honest. But according to the people who juggle the numbers, all targets have been reached and exceeded. The BBC are running around like mad things.”
Davies noted that the show’s future beyond 2025 is “still up in the air”. Gatwa’s second season wrapped production last month, while the first season finale airs next Saturday.
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