The Eleventh Hour scored an Appreciation Index score of 86 making it one of the most enjoyed programmes of the weekend.

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. Figures are based on ratings from a selected panel of 5000 people. The average score for BBC One is 80 with the average for the current Doctor Who timeslot being 82, and the average for Drama being 85.

The score is higher than previous Doctors' premieres: David Tennant's first appearance in The Christmas Invasion scored 84, and Christopher Eccleston's first story, Rose, scored 76. AI figures tend to grow throughout a series as the audience becomes familiar with the characters and the concept. Doctor Who's highest score so far was 91 for The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.

The programme was most enjoyed by female viewers who rated it significantly higher than males watching. It also scored highest in Scotland and with the 35-54 age group. Viewers generally found the programme high quality, original and different with some missing David Tennant.

Overnight figures for Sunday show nothing could approach the success of Doctor Who on Saturday, with the highest rated show being A Touch of Frost on ITV1 with 7.2 million watching. So The Eleventh Hour was the highest rated show of the Easter weekend and the eighth highest of the whole week.

The Sunday BBC Three repeat was watched by 0.67 million viewers and was the third rated show on multi-channel for Sunday.

Unofficial overnight figures show The Eleventh Hour was watched by 7.7 million viewers on BBC One with another 0.3 million watching on BBC HD, giving a total audience of 8.0 million viewers.

The programme has a share of 36.8% of the total viewing audience.

The programme was by far the most watched on British television on Saturday night, beating second placed Casualty by nearly 2.5 million viewers. The BBC comprehensively ruled the night with the top six programmes and eight out of the top ten. Ant & Dec's Push the Button scored highest for ITV 1 with just 3.9 million watching while Harry Potter had an average of 2.9 million viewers.

With one day to go, Doctor Who is the 8th highest programme of the week in a top ten which, apart from Doctor Who, consists entirely of the soaps EastEnders and Coronation Street.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.88 million viewers. The programme had a 4.3% share of the audience and was the second most watched multi-channel programme of the day.

Final figures will be released in about 10 days time.

The Eleventh Hour made its debut in the United Kingdom earlier this evening and reviews of the episode are appearing online.

Warning: Some of the reviews may contain spoilers for those who haven't seen the episode.

The Telegraph says Matt Smith has taken up the mantle as the alien Time Lord perfectly, giving an A+ to the casting director and an A+ to Smith, while it describes Karen Gillan as a fine foil. The Mirror breaths a sigh of relief with the headline Phew.. a brilliant new Doctor Who saying the Beeb’s best franchise is in safe hands while The Guardian said some of the plot devices were a brilliant conceit that puts a new spin on a 50-year-old dynamic. The Mail says this was a deft first episode, packed with one-liners and an even more fantastical feel than of late, but with that old reassuring combination of intense Britishness, quirkiness and a sense of the macabre. And The Independent thinks Moffat has clearly picked the right leading man saying he is the Doctor. And he might be more the Doctor than anyone who was the Doctor before.

Fan reaction has been overwhelmingly positive with over 80% of contributors to the Gallifrey Base poll rating the episode 8/10 or more. Doctor Who and Matt Smith have both been trending topics on twitter.

To mark the transmission the BBC Doctor Who website has been updated with behind the scenes material, a clean version of the theme music and a tour of the new TARDIS interior.

Overnight ratings will be released Sunday morning and will be available on the News Page.

Steven Moffat has recorded a special introduction to The Eleventh Hour, which can be viewed on the official website.

In the UK, the publicty push for the new series continues with Karen Gillan appearing on GMTV and on CBBC sometime on Friday morning. BBC America viewers can catch Matt Smith's meeting with Jonathan Ross this Friday at 10pm ET.

Meanwhile the BBC Big Screen events continue at five locations around the UK until Saturday. ReelScotland has a review of the first day of the Edinburgh event.

The event includes a showing of the 3D version of the trail, which is also available on the BBC YouTube Channel. Special glasses are needed to view it in its 3D glory. Instructions on how to make a pair are available on the BBC bang goes the theory site.

The BBC Press Office has released details of the third episode of the new series Victory of the Daleks.

The story by Mark Gatiss will air in the UK on 17th April. The time is provisionally set as 6.20pm - 7.25pm, although there has been no indication that the episode is any longer than the usual 45 minutes. The extra time listed probably belongs to Casualty which is currently listed as 30 minutes long. Final schedules will be released next Wednesday.

Schedules for the 10th April have now been fixed and Episode Two of the new series, The Beast Below, will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD at 6.15pm, one of the earliest slots in which the show has been shown since it returned in 2005.

The programme will be preceded on BBC One by All New Total Wipeout, a new series of what is described as TV's biggest, brashest, daftest game show. Doctor Who will be followed by the latest edition of the search for Dorothy in Over the Rainbow.

For the first time, Doctor Who will face opposition from FA Cup football on ITV 1 where they are showing the Semi-Final between Aston Villa and Chelsea. The last FA cup match to be shown in this timeslot was Chelsea V Stoke on 6th March, which got 3.46 million watching.

BBC Two will be showing the 2004 biopic The Aviator, charting the life of eccentric film director Howard Hughes over a 20-year period. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett. Channel 4 will show reality series Come Dine with Me while Five has the 1994 film I Love Trouble, a romantic comedy about two rival reporters who constantly try to out-scoop each other, starring Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte.

Doctor Who Confidential is on BBC Three at 7.00pm and finds out just what makes the sinister Smilers tick as well as talking to Oscar-nominated actress Sophie Okenedo  about creating her extraordinary character. BBC HD is showing Golf: The Masters on Saturday so the HD broadcast of Confidential will be on Sunday 11th April at 6.10pm.

Doctor Who Magazine 420 comes with two different covers featuring new Doctor Matt Smith and new companion Karen Gillan who reveal all about playing the Doctor and Amy Pond.

In the magazine, Smith talks about how the Doctor’s costume may evolve, the nicknames that he and Gillan have for each other and playing football with James Corden for a scene in Episode 11.

Gillan, meanwhile, tells of Amy’s complicated relationship with the Doctor and Amy’s boyfriend Rory, what she thinks about wearing surprisingly short skirts, and her approach to playing the role of the Doctor’s new best friend:

Also in the magazine:

• What have you got for me this time?
The first five episodes of the new series – The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks, The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone – with never-before-seen photos and revelations from head writer Steven Moffat!
• I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!
Steven Moffat talks candidly about the perils of being recognised in public as Doctor Who’s head writer – and finds time to answer your questions about the new series – in Production Notes.
• And it’s goodnight from me
Neil Harris looks back fondly at 47 years of farewells in Doctor Who – and discovers how the series has always had its softer side – in You Are Not Alone.
• McNeice to see you, to see you, McNeice!
Churchill himself, actor IAN McNEICE, talks to DWM about his role in the forthcoming story Victory of the Daleks – and reveals what it’s like to encounter the metal meanies in real life.
• Give her a big hand!
It’s the final end! The Doctor and Majenta engage in the ultimate battle with the Crimson Hand in the very last comic strip to feature the Time Lord’s Tenth incarnation. Will anyone survive the apocalypse? Don’t miss the conclusion to The Crimson Hand, written by Dan McDaid, with art by Martin Geraghty
• Is it cos I’s blue?
It’s the most remarkable machine in the universe – and yet it looks like a blue twentieth-century police box! The Watcher uncovers the many and varied secrets of the Doctor’s time and space machine, the TARDIS!
• You’re hired!
On the planet Vulcan, the colonists decide to employ the services of creatures that they have discovered buried in a mercury swap – the Daleks! Can a newly-regenerated Doctor, armed only with his recorder and a rather natty bow tie, save the day? Find out, as The Fact of Fiction digs up some details about the classic Second Doctor story from 1966 The Power of the Daleks!

Plus! All the latest official news, reviews, previews and competitions – including the chance to win an 32” HD-ready widescreen TV. The magazine is out in the UK on 1st April.

The new issue of the Radio Times is released in the UK today, and gives an exclusive glimpse into the new TARDIS with a special pull-out gatefold cover.

The magazine talks to new Doctor Matt Smith. Smith is a graduate of the University of East Anglia, where he studied drama and creative writing, and has his own way of accessing the enigmatic Doctor.



Also Karen Gillan is the girl who grabbed the role every actress would die for: the companion to the eleventh Doctor. Fans camped outside the Doctor Who set are a reminder of the show’s unique place in British culture.

The title of Episode Seven of the new series has been revealed as Amy's Choice.

The title is revealed in next week's edition of Radio Times, which is released tomorrow. The story is written by Simon Nye and directed by Catherine Morshead.

The magazine confirms the titles of the first seven episodes of the series, the first six of which were previously known. There is, however, some confusion over the title of Episode Six; although Doctor Who Magazine and Matt Smith have referred to it as Vampires in Venice, the script's author, Toby Whithouse, and the BBC preview discs have confirmed the title is Vampires of Venice.

A selection of photos from the new TARDIS interior are available on the Radio Times Website.

The Radio Times cover will be available on the Doctor Who News Page from 12.01am BST tomorrow.

The first scene of The Eleventh Hour is now available to viewers in the UK on the official BBC website and on the Red Button service.

Fans in the United States can watch the clip on the BBC America website.