The Vampires of Venice has debuted in Australia to excellent ratings. TV Tonight reports that the episode averaged 938,000 viewers in the five major capital cities, again despite stiff competition from the commercial networks. However, for the first week it was not the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating program of the day, instead coming a close third to the series final of Foyle's War and the Sunday 7pm news. The corresponding Confidential Cutdown also rated an excellent 777,000 viewers in the five major capitals.

Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald and TV Tonight report that, from July, the ABC will replace its high definition network with its new 24 hours news service. ABC HD currently broadcasts Doctor Who but not in full high definition, instead only in a modified 720p format. Doctor Who will continue to be broadcast in standard definition on ABC1.

The Hungry Earth was watched by 4.5 million viewers according to unofficial overnight figures.

The glorious weather across the UK on Saturday saw the series fall to the lowest overnight total since the series returned in 2005. 4.24 million watched on BBC One with an additional 0.30 million watching on BBC HD. The share remained consistent with 32.2% of the total audience.

Only 13.1 million were watching TV when Doctor Who started implying many were still out enjoying the hottest weekend of the year. The programme inherited an audience of 1.8 million viewers from Junior Apprentice and peaked with 4.8 million on BBC One.

The winner of the night was Over the Rainbow, with the results show topping the night with 6.2 million and the earlier show getting 5.8 million watching. Both Casualty and The National Lottery: In It to Win It 2012 beat Doctor Who with the programme coming fifth for the day. With Sunday's overnight figures to come Doctor Who is the 32nd most watched programme for the week. Against Doctor Who, ITV1 achieved 1.9 million for The Whole 19 Yards.

Final figures will be released next week and will include those who recorded the programme for viewing later. The lowest confirmed figure for the revived series so far is 6.1 million for The Satan Pit in June 2006.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential had 0.28 million watching and was 15th for the day on Multi-Channel Television.

Digital Journal has published a fairly extensive piece to tie in with the UK broadcast of tonight's episode, The Hungry Earth; and has picked up on an interview Karen Gillan gave recently, in which she talked about the possibility of a Doctor Who story involving Billy Connolly and the Loch Ness Monster!

Meanwhile, the original interview with Gillan can be found here; and, as mentioned by the Doctor Who News Page earlier, ReelScotland has published an interview (including spoilers) with one of tonight's guest stars, Neve McIntosh.

The Hungry Earth can be seen tonight, on BBC 1, at 6.15 p.m. It's the first of a two-part story by Chris Chibnall. The second episode, Cold Blood, will be shown on Saturday, 29 May, at the later time of 7 p.m.

The BBC Press Office has released details for the tenth episode of the current series, Vincent And The Doctor.

The Richard Curtis story is scheduled for Saturday 5th June. It stars Tony Curran as Vincent Van Gogh and Bill Nighy as Dr Black.

The current series will end with an episode titled The Big Bang.

The title of the final story of the season has been confirmed by the official website.

Full series details can be found on our series guide.

Doctor Who moves back to a 7pm start for Episode Nine of the new series, Cold Blood, on Saturday 29th May.

The new BBC One line up is due to the showing of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest live from Oslo, Norway at 8pm that evening. Doctor Who is preceded by an edition of The Weakest Link and followed by the National Lottery Saturday Draws.

Doctor Who faces The Whole 19 Yards on ITV1, a game show with Vernon Kay and Caroline Flack. BBC Two is showing The Boats That Built Britain with Channel 4 offering the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

2 entertain have published pictures taken at the recording session for the commentary track on the forthcoming release of The Dominators. Two pictures have been published on the classicdw twitter account, the first featuring Wendy Padbury who played Zoe, Giles Block who played Teel, Sylvia James who did the make up for the story and Toby Hadoke who moderated. The second features Wendy Padbury who played Zoe, Frazer Hines who played Jamie, Arthur Cox who played Cully and Toby Hadoke who moderated, along with Commentary Producer John Kelly.
The Dominators is due for release in the UK on 12 July.

Tom Baker has confirmed he has now recorded the commentary track for the 2011 release of The Seeds of Doom, along with John Challis who played Scorby in the story and Philip Hinchcliffe who was producer at the time.

Also on the twitter account it has been confirmed that a tribute to former producer Barry Letts is being prepared for release on a future DVD. Tom Baker and Nicholas Courtney will both contribute to the documentary.

The title of the penultimate episode of the current series has been revealed as The Pandorica Opens and the episode will be exclusively previewed at a special screening at the Princess Anne Theatre, BAFTA on Wednesday 16 June.

There will be a special Question and Answer session with Matt Smith talking about his first season as the Doctor and Steven Moffat talking about his first season as Lead Writer. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will join the panel.

The British Film Institute is offering the chance to see a special preview of episode ten of the current series, Vincent and the Doctor, but the event is only open to those who attend with children.

The special showing will take place on Wednesday 2nd June at 1.30pm and at 2pm and will be followed by a special Question and Answer session with writer Richard Curtis and Karen Gillan.

Tickets can be booked on 020 7928 3232.

Final figures for Episode Six, The Vampires of Venice, published by BARB show the story was watched by 7.68 million viewers.

On BBC One the programme got 7.28 million watching where it was the fifth most watched programme for the channel for the week, just being out-rated by EastEnders. An additional 0.40 million watched on BBC HD. When added together the programme totalled 7.68 million viewers and was the 12th most watched programme of the week.

The BBC Three Sunday repeat did not rank high enough to get into the top 30 for the week.

Full ratings for the series so far can be found in Gallifrey Base.