Dinosaurs on a Spaceship was watched by 135,320 viewers on New Zealand's Prime channel last Thursday, and was once again the highest-rated programme for the channel that evening. Though down on last week's series opener, for comparison Night Terrors last year achieved 119,850 viewers (22 Sep 2011).

For other channels, similarly the top two shows were again TV2's Embarrassing Bodies (340,590 viewers) and TV3's The X Factor USA (311,730, 7:30-9:30pm average), followed by Sky Sport 2's International Netball (166,080, 7:40-9:05pm average), FOUR's American Dad (70,270, 8:30pm) and Family Guy (69,830, 9:00pm), Sky Sport 1's ITM Cup Rugby (43,080, 7:30-9:10pm average), and Maori TV's Code (22,890). Top show of the day was One News on TV One with 676,040 viewers.


Meanwhile, Asylum of the Daleks has topped the time-shifted TV ratings, with some 41,740 viewers - the figure indicates that almost a fifth of the total audience watching the show did so in this way! The consolidated rating for the show is now 213,430 viewers (19.56% share).

A Town Called Mercy had a final consolidated rating of 8.42 million viewers.

The final figure includes all those who recorded the programme and watched it within 7 days of transmission. It is a large increase on the initially estimated figure and gives the show a 33.4% share of the total TV Audience. It is the highest rating of the series so far, and the first time since the series returned that the third episode has outrated the series opener. It is the Best performing 3rd episode of a season since the 2005 story The Unquiet Dead.

The figure does not include those watching on iPlayer.

A full report of the week, giving Doctor Who's place in the top ten, should be issued by BARB tomorrow.

A Town Called Mercy has averaged 556,000 viewers in the five major Australian capital cities. Up against the football finals, it was the top-rating ABC drama of the day and the ninth highest rating programme of the day overall.

The Power of Three had an overnight audience of 5.49 million viewers, a share of 25.6% of the total TV audience.

The programme was down on last week, not having the benefit of a lead-in from Strictly Come Dancing, but was up on the rating for the fourth Autumn episode last year, The God Complex, which had an overnight figure of 5.2 million.

Doctor Who was the second highest rated programme of the day. Winner of the night was once more The X Factor, which had 8.24 million watching. Casualty was third with 4.0 million watching. Against Doctor Who, Red Or Black? on ITV 1 had 3.66 million viewers.

With Sunday's ratings still to come, Doctor Who is at 17th place for the week. Final consolidated figures, which will be available next week, should see this position rise.

Final ratings data for the week ending 9th September 2012 released by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board or BARB, puts Doctor Who as the ninth most-watched programme of the week on British television.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship had a final official rating of 7.57 million viewers, over 2 million higher than the initially reported figure. The share of 31.9% is also much higher than the initial estimate.

The episode was the fourth for the week on BBC One with the crime series New Tricks once more taking top place followed by two episodes of EastEnders. ITV had three episodes of Coronation Street and two of The X Factor in the list above the Doctor. While BBC One BARB listings include those watching on BBC One HD, ITV listings do not include ITV HD or ITV+1 which need to be added to the main channel statistics in order to compare like for like.

The chart position of 9th is higher than most of last year's episodes, which, apart from the season opener, all hovered around the lower half of the top twenty.

The final ratings figure does not include the BBC Three repeat, when 430,000 watched. No do they not include those watching on iPlayer where around 800,000 people accessed the episode in the first two days. Around 1.8 million have now accessed the series premiere Asylum of the Daleks.

Doctor Who: A Town Called Mercy had an Appreciation Index or AI score of 85.

The score is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the episode. It is based of a survey of 5000 people. The score of 85 is slightly lower than the first two episodes in the series, but still puts the programme into the excellent category.

Highest scorer on the two main channels was Casualty, with 88, while highest scorer of the day was Coast on BBC Two with 90.

The new series of Downton Abbey had an overnight rating of 9.0 million on Sunday night, which helped, along with Sunday's X Factor, push Doctor Who down to 16th for the week on overnight figures. Final consolidated ratings will be released next Monday.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship has averaged 577,000 viewers in the five major Australian capital cities. Up against the football finals, it was the top-rating drama of the day and the seventh highest rating programme of the day overall.

Media Links: TV Tonight

A Town Called Mercy had an overnight audience of 6.6 million viewers, a share of 29.1% of the total TV audience.

Doctor Who was third for the day, behind the big entertainment hitters, The X Factor with 9.0 million and the launch show of Strictly Come Dancing which has 8.0 million watching, providing a strong lead in for the Doctor.

Against Doctor Who, ITV1's Red and Black managed 3.6 million viewers, while Dad's Army on BBC Two had 1.9 million watching.

Last year's third story of the autumn, The Girl Who Waited, had 6.0 million watching with a lower audience share while the 2011 launch of Strictly Come Dancing had an audience of 7.6 million viewers.

The rating for Doctor Who puts it at 14th place for the week, with Sunday's ratings still to come, although final consolidated figures, which will be available next week, should see this position rise.

Yesterday's premiere of Asylum of the Daleks in New Zealand was watched by 171,690 viewers on Prime, making it the highest-rated programme on the channel for the day and the second highest rated episode for the Eleventh Doctor so far - The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe achieved 175,970 viewers on 19th January.

The premiere of Let's Kill Hitler, broadcast around this time on 15th September, achieved 117,100 viewers.


For other channels on the night, Embarrassing Bodies on TV2 won the time-slot with 380,860 viewers; 307,170 watched The X Factor USA (started at 7:30-9:30pm average), 224,900 watched TV One's Four Weddings, 74,770 watched Family Guy on Four (9:00pm start), 64,450 watched the ITM Cup Rugby on Sky Sport 1 (7:35-9:15pm average), 38,600 watched Code on Maori TV, 34,410 watched Law and Order Criminal Intent on The Box, and Tower Heist on Sky Movies 1 was watched by 21,250. Top show of the day was One News on TV One, with 678,810 tuning in.

Canadian broadcaster SPACE has reported another ratings success with its broadcast of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship last Saturday.


Canadian viewers can catch up on Doctor Who at SPACEcast.com.