David Tennant's swansong scored an Appreciation Index figure of 89 on BBC One on Friday.

The Appreciation Index, or AI, is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. A figure of 89 is incredibly high, especially for a programme with such a large audience. The show scored well on all indicators, with viewers marking it as a high-quality programme which they made a special effort to watch. It scored highest with the female audience and with those aged 35-55.

The End of Time - Part Two is the highest scoring of the five specials. Only the last two episodes of Series Four have scored higher on their first transmission.

Earlier in the day, the repeat of The End of Time - Part One, with its lower audience of 2 million, scored an AI figure of 90.

10.4 million people watched the final part of The End of Time on BBC One yesterday, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The programme got a 35.5% share of the total television audience and was the second most watched programme of the day. EastEnders once more took the top place with 11.6 million, the programme benefiting from the Doctor Who inheritance. The later showing of Coronation Street on ITV1 had 9.8 million viewers while its earlier placing got 8.6 million, with Doctor Who beating the soap in the period they were head to head. Doctor Who peaked with 10.87 million watching between 7:45 and 7:50pm.

The rating makes the Tenth Doctor's regeneration the most watched regeration in the series' history.

Doctor Who was also available on BBC HD where a further 389,000 watched the episode.

On BBC Three Doctor Who Confidential had 1.1 million watching with and additional 76,000 on BBC HD, one of the highest ratings for the series and the second highest multi-channel programme for the day.

2 million viewers watched the lunchtime BBC One repeat of The End of Time Part One, where the programme comfortably won its timeslot.

BBC News has published a report on the overnight ratings for the episode, also covering some of the critical and audience reaction to Tennant's departure.

The passing of the Tenth Doctor is covered extensively in Saturday's papers. Beware reviews do contain spoilers of the episodes.

The Times has a minute by minute description of the story which it says is a great entrance and a great exit and has a look forward to the Moffat years while The Mail has a big photo feature on the episode. The Guardian describes the outgoing production team as masters. The Sun claims there was a huge electricity surge in the UK as the population switched on their kettles as the episode finished although The National Grid's website appears to contradict this. The paper's reviewer hated the episode calling it an embarrassing spectacle of overacting.

The Herald thought the story was funny and sad, scary and uplifting, threatening and comforting while The Telegraph felt that David Tennant said farewell to the series in thrilling yet emotional style.

Online, Den of Geek says the episode was an 80 minute exercise in just how much David Tennant is going to be missed and Airlock Alpha says the real heart of the episode was the interaction between Bernard Cribbins and Tennant, with both actors able to turn even the smallest piece of dialogue into something spectacular. SFX gives the episode five stars calling it a great finale with very clever writing, and incredibly sad yet resonant final words.

Matt Smith's local paper The Northampton Chronicle says the new Doctor will make the town proud.

The episode commentary, the last with Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner, is now on the BBC website.

For more press items in the last few days see GallifreyBase's Media Summary.

BBC News have uploaded this morning's interview with David Tennant. The item contains two clips from The End of Time Part Two, which contain spoilers from Part One.

Tennant later appeared on a BBC Radio 5 Live phono-in, which is available on the BBC iPlayer.

BBC News have also published an article on regenerations past and present.

David Tennant has also talked to MTV about his 'Doctor Who' Mementoes.

The End of Time Part One received an AI figure of 87.

The Appreciation Index, or AI, figure is a measure of how much the audience liked a programme. A score over 85 is considered excellent. Doctor Who had the highest score of the day on BBC One or BBC Two. The only programme to score higher on the main five channels was the film Gladiator on ITV1, which scored 89 with a much lower audience.

The Sunday night, BBC Three repeat of The End of Time Part One was watched by 590,000 viewers according to unofficial overnight figures. The programme was the 11th most watched multi channel programme for the day and had a share of 2.7%.

With figures available for the whole week, the Christmas day showing remains as the third most watched programme. Final figures will include those who record the programme and watch it within one week, and it is possible the programme will move into second place once these are released next week. The Appreciation Index figure should be available Tuesday.

10.0 million people watched the first part of The End of Time on BBC One yesterday, according to unofficial overnight figures.

Doctor Who was the third most-watched programme of the day, behind soap opera EastEnders and sitcom The Royle Family, and achieved a 42.2% share of the total television audience.

Although the raw figure is down on the previous two years, it still makes The End of Time, Part One one of the highest-rating episodes of the series since it returned in 2005. An additional 340,000 viewers watched the programme on the BBC HD channel. If HD figures are added to the BBC One figures then both Doctor Who and The Royle Family got 10.4 million watching.

The day was a triumph for the BBC, with BBC One taking nine of the top ten Christmas Day spots.

On the digital channels Doctor Who Confidential had 0.58 million watching and was the fourth highest multi channel programme of the day.

Final figures, which will include those who record and watch the programme within one week, will be released by BARB in January.

Russell T Davies has told The Guardian how he took Pop Idol as his inspiration for the rebirth of Doctor Who. He tells the paper how he used to go to a friend's house to watch the final with several others. He says "I wanted to do that with drama. If we could have the voice at the beginning of The X Factor introducing each episode I would do it."

In a somewhat different interview, Davies has caused controversy by voicing his concerns about the future of the BBC, should the Conservative Party win the 2010 General Election. Davies told The Mirror he fears the BBC will be dismantled by the Tories and is convinced that a move to freeze the licence fee by the Conservatives will be the beginning of the end for the corporation. "They'll dismantle it slowly. It'll get smaller and smaller until it just supports Radio 4 and some news. I'll come back and fight them at the barricades. I feel a bit like Alan Bennett, who said his favourite things about Britain were the BBC and the NHS." Davies's remarks were picked up by many UK papers, but not it seems in Conservative Central office. When journalist Matt Withers rang their press office for a statement he was told they wouldn't comment on it, because "Mr Davies is a backbench MP and, as such, his opinion isn't necessarily party policy".

Veteran actress June Whitfield has told The Sun of a particular problem she had while recording The End of Time, when the script called for her to goose David Tennant, "Well, he is so thin that it was difficult to find the bottom!" says Whitfield, 84. "But this was in the script, I promise."

You can find a summary of media articles on the GallifreyBase Forum.

In the run up to The End of Time on Christmas Day, the Doctor Who repeats on BBC Three have been scoring high ratings. Tuesday's showing of The Next Doctor had 0.54 million watching, making it the tenth highest-rated multichannel programme for the day. Wednesday's repeat of Planet of the Dead did even better, with 0.69 million watching and was the second highest-rated multichannel programme of the day. The 7pm slot has no inheritance, being the first programme on BBC Three for the day, meaning the audience steadily rose throughout the episode with 850,000 watching by the end.

Meanwhile the BBC has revealed that Planet of the Dead was the ninth most-watched programme of the year on the BBC iPlayer, with 811,800 requests. Torchwood: Children of Earth Part 1 was thirteenth with 559,800 requests. The top programme was Top Gear. The BBC iPlayer has its second birthday on Christmas Day, and is now available on more than 20 different devices.

The BBC has revealed that BBC Three repeats of The End of Time will have available an audio commentary from outgoing executive producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner.

The commentary for part one will be available on Freeview, Virgin and Sky on Sunday 27th December at 7pm, while the commentary for Part Two will only be on Virgin and Sky on Sunday 3rd January at 7pm. Neither commentary will be available on Freesat.

The commentaries are expected to be broadcast on BBC Radio 7 and thus will be available worldwide on the BBC i-player. Part One has been scheduled for 3am on 26th December, with Part Two airing at 2.30am on Sunday 3rd January.

In addition, the Christmas Eve, 9am, BBC Three repeat of Dreamland will also have a commentary, this time with writer Phil Ford and the director Gary Russell.