The Girl in the Fireplace Overnight Ratings - Updated

Early news of overnight viewing figures for Saturday's new Doctor Who episode The Girl in the Fireplace on BBC1 are in: an average of 7.4 million viewers watched the episode, with an average 36.6% audience share, down only 0.2 million from the previous week's "School Reunion". According to the ViewingFigures report on 15-minute intervals the episode peaked in the final segment (7.30-7.45) to 7.8 million viewers, while the five-minute statistics show a peak up to 8.10 million viewers between 7.35 and 7.40pm right before the end of the episode. The huge climb of viewership between the start of the episode in the five-minute intervals (6.26 million at 7.00pm, to 7.39 million at 7.15pm, over a million extra viewers) suggest that UK audiences were unprepared for the move of the series to the 7.00pm time slot this week, as it had begun at 7.15pm the previous three weeks.

"Doctor Who" was again the #1 rated show on UK television on Saturday both by viewers as well as by audience share.

Meanwhile, the broadcast of the fourth episode of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC3 immediately afterward attracted 724,400 viewers, with a 4.7% audience share. Doctor Who Confidential was #1 for Saturday broadcast on the non-terrestrial channels. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon', Andy Parish)