Doctor Who on BBC America has broken records for the channel with 1.2 million viewers watching the series premier, The Eleventh Hour last Saturday evening.

The audience was for those watching Live or Same Day and aged above 2.

The programme also gave the channel its best Live + Same Day audience in the 25-54 age group and ranked BBC America number 2 among all ad-supported cable networks in its time period for this age group. The rating is higher than that achieved by the SyFy channel in this age group for the season premiers of Series 1-4.

Doctor Who is also currently the Number 1 TV series in the US and Canadian iTunes store.

The BBC Press Office has announced that The Sarah Jane Adventures will have two special guests when it returns for a fourth series this autumn. In a special two-part story written by Russell T Davies, Matt Smith will appear as the Doctor, and Katy Manning will guest as the Doctor's former companion Jo Grant. Manning starred in Doctor Who opposite the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, from 1971 to 1973. Manning has recorded audio adventures for Big Finish Productions, but this will be the first time she has played Jo Grant on television in thirty-seven years.

The press release includes reactions from Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane Smith, Manning, and Sarah Jane Adventures executive producer Nikki Wilson:

Final figures for The Beast Below published today by BARB show the story was watched by 8.42 million viewers.

The total is once more much higher than the initial overnight reported figure, implying many time-shifted the episode.

On BBC One the story had 7.93 million watching, enough to make the story the fifth most watched on the channel for the week, behind four editions of EastEnders, and the eleventh most watched on all British television. However an additional 494,000 people watched the simulcast on BBC HD, the identical audience to the week before. This gave the story a total audience 8.42 million, making it the tenth most watched overall.

On BBC Three the Sunday repeat had 0.82 million watching and was the sixteenth most watched programme on multi-channel for the week.

Sticker collectibles producer Topps will be releasing a new edition of their Doctor Who Stickers and Album collection, "following the Eleventh Doctor and his brand new assistant on their amazing journey through time and space".

Ruth Leonard, Entertainment Marketing Director, Topps Europe, said:

As well as the new Doctor, the new collection will also feature the 2009 specials, and also the most popular characters in the series, aliens, Cybermen, and of course the Daleks. There will be some 260 stickers in total to collect, with the 48 page album also featuring an A2 wall chart.

The collection is expected to launch during the first week of May.

Victory of the Daleks scored an Appreciation Index figure of 84.

The AI or Appreciation Index or AI score is a measure of how much an audience enjoyed a programme. Although the score is slightly lower than recent episodes of Doctor Who, it is still one of the highest scores of the day.

Doctor Who Confidential had an AI figure of 85.

The Sunday repeat had an audience of 0.59 million watching.

With the whole week's ratings now available, Doctor Who currently is seventeenth for the week. This will almost certainly rise when the final figures are reported next week.

The BBC has released a trailer for Episode Four of the new series, The Time of Angels.

The episode is written by Steven Moffat and stars Alex Kingston as River Song, Simon Dutton as Alistair and Iain Glen as Father Octavian. It can be seen in the UK next Saturday at 6.20pm on BBC One and BBC HD.

Victory of the Daleks was watched by 6.2 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures.

With a share of 32.7% the rating is the second highest of the day. Britain's Got Talent stole the night with 10.6 million viewers and a 44% share of the audience. Doctor Who was still nearly a million viewers ahead of the third placed programme, the BBC News.

An additional 231,000 watched the later showing on BBC HD, although as the showing wasn't simulcast the figures won't be added together.

Doctor Who is currently sixteenth for the week, a position which should rise when the official ratings are released next week.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 0.59 million with a share of 3.1%. An additional 0.12 million watched on BBC HD.

The Eleventh Doctor has debuted in Australia to excellent ratings on both TV and the internet. TV Tonight reports that The Eleventh Hour averaged 1.033 million viewers in the five major capital cities, despite stiff competition from the commercial networks, including the final of The Biggest Loser. It was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's top-rating program of the day, rating higher than its popular Sunday 7pm news (By comparison, Part Two of The End of Time only rated 840,000 viewers in the five cities back in February). The episode and the corresponding Confidential Cutdown have also debuted on the ABC's iView service. TV Tonight reports that 'The Eleventh Hour', which appeared on iView almost two days before its televison debut, was also a big internet hit for the national broadcaster, having 112,000 views over the weekend (By way of comparison, the iView service had a total of 224,000 visitors, 540,000 visits and 2.8 million page views in the week ending 18 April). Matt Smith and Karen Gillan have also appeared in especially filmed ABC trailers directly inviting viewers to tune into ABC1 to watch the program on Sunday evening.

The debut of Matt Smith has also attracted considerable local media, including a number of interviews with the star on ABC Local Radio (including Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney local ABC) and the national ABC youth radio network Triple J, during which Matt has reflected on the long history and enduring popularity of 'Doctor Who' in Australia. In an amusing interview with TV Tonight, Smith even asks if an Australian version of Doctor Who has ever been considered! The actor has also been interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald, the Sunday Telegraph and TV Week where he expresses the hope of filming a future episode in Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald has rated 'The Eleventh Hour' its 'show of the week' with Michael Idato writing that 'the real surprise is the manner in which Matt Smith owns the role completely from the very first frame. Any fear there might be teething problems or some lingering affection for his predecessor...failed to materialise. The verdict? Great, big, wallopy, timey-wimey brilliant.' Dianne Butler of the The Daily Telegraph also gives the program four stars, while Kerrie Murphy of the The Weekend Australian writes it 'is a pretty darn fantastic first full outing for the 11th doctor...Not only is Smith great but so is the story, which sees the Doctor crashing into the life of a feisty young girl who is visited by an unusual escapee prisoner. It nails the Doctor Who formula, mixing comedy with genuine tension and emotion.' Scott Ellis of the Sunday Age also writes of the new Doctor that he 'will take some getting used to but, by the end of this first adventure, Smith shows he has what it takes to reinvent the character again.' The Sunday Age also makes the episode one of its picks of the day also writing, 'Steven Moffat - the man who brought us two of the best-ever Doctor Who eps (Blink, The Girl in the Fireplace) is now head boy. Add the fabulous Matt Smith to the mix as the new Doctor and we're set for a superb series.' Moffat is also interviewed by David Knox of TV Tonight.

Just a reminder that the new series of Doctor Who - starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond - premieres in Australia, Canada and the US this weekend.

In the US, The Eleventh Hour, by Steven Moffat, hits TV screens on BBC America tonight (Saturday), at 9 p.m. ET. The opening episode will be preceded at 8 p.m. ET by Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide, a documentary introducing the world of Doctor Who to new viewers.

Canada premieres The Eleventh Hour tonight (Saturday) on SPACE, also at 9 p.m. ET, with Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide showing before it at 8 p.m. ET.

In Australia, The Eleventh Hour will be broadcast on ABC 1 on Sunday (April 18) at 7.30 p.m. The series has already premiered in Australia on ABC iView, the station's Internet broadcasting service. Also, Series 1 of K9 continues to be broadcast weekly on Saturdays on Channel Ten.

The new series is receiving masses of press attention in all three countries. Digital Journal continues its coverage, running three separate pieces for the US launch, the Canadian launch and the Australian launch.



Meanwhile, in the UK, Matt Smith's Series 1 (Doctor Who, Series 31) continues tonight on BBC 1 at 6.30 p.m. with Victory of the Daleks, by Mark Gatiss. A report on the history of the metal menace has appeared on BBC News. As reported by us yesterday, immediately after this episode, there will be a trailer on BBC 1 for the fortcoming downloadable episodes of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. Episode 3 of Doctor Who Confidential follows on BBC 3 at 7.15 p.m.

Friday's BBC Three repeat of The Beast Below had an audience of 0.48 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures. The programme was the 6th highest rated for the day on multi-channel television.

The cut-down version of Doctor Who Confidential got 0.35 million watching and was the 18th most watched multi-channel programme.