UK Ratings, Audience Appreciation Figures - Updated

Overnight viewing figures for the weekend beyond the transmission of "New Earth" (which Outpost Gallifrey reported two days ago) are in. The first transmission of Totally Doctor Who, the children's documentary series, on Thursday on BBC1 was seen by 800,000 viewers, while Saturday evening's first Doctor Who Confidential documentary on BBC3 was seen by 732,000 viewers with a 4.7% audience share (the Sunday night repeat had 324,000 viewers, 2.1% audience share). Also, the Sunday evening repeat of New Earth on BBC3 had 384,000 viewers (2.5% audience share), rather low compared to last year's Sunday repeats (621,000 for 'Aliens of London' on the same weekend in 2005)... although this was on a day when good weather saw television audiences in the UK down by 20% or more overall. Confidential's Saturday figure is 21,000 higher than its 2005 equivalent.

Meanwhile, the audience appreciation index (AI) results for Saturday are available, and the transmission of New Earthsecured a rating of 85. This is the highest figure for any programme on UK television on Saturday, Doctor Who's nearest rival being Five's "CSI: New York" with 84. It should be noted that Doctor Who is one of only seven out of forty programmes shown on Saturday to have an AI of over 80; another seven scored 70 or lower, and the rest are in the seventies. The figure suggests an general audience response slightly more positive than that for The Christmas Invasion(84), and makes the episode more widely 'popular' than all but two episodes of the 2005 series - 'Bad Wolf' (86) and 'The Parting of the Ways' (89). (Thanks to Steve Tribe, Andy Parish)