Asylum of the Daleks had a final consolidated rating of 8.33 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 34.4% share of the total TV Audience.

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.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship had an overnight audience of 5.5 million viewers, a share of 26.2% of the total TV audience.

The rating was the highest on BBC One for the day, and second overall, with ITV1's The X Factor once more winning the night with 8.2 million watching. Ratings across the evening were down on the previous week with Ant and Dec's Red or Black? taking 3rd and 4th place, achieving 3.4 million viewers against The Doctor.

The summer of music at the Royal Albert Hall concluded with The Last Night of the Proms which had 3.2 million watching.

The rating compares with last year's second story of the autumn, Night Terrors, which also had 5.5 million watching, but had a slightly lower audience share and lost out to Red or Black?

The rating for Doctor Who puts it at 15th 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.

Meanwhile Friday's BBC Three repeat of Asylum of the Daleks had 0.40 million watching.

Both Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures have been nominated in this year's BAFTA Cymru Awards.

The Doctor Who Series 6 opening episode The Impossible Astronaut is in the running for the Television Drama title, while the Series 6 finale The Wedding of River Song is up for a gong in the Sound category. The Curse of Clyde Langer, from the fifth and final series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, is nominated for the Children's Programme award.

The Doctor Who Adventure Game The Gunpowder Plot - available free to TV licence-holders in the UK and for sale elsewhere globally - is up for the Digital Creativity And Games title.

Meanwhile, Eve Myles is nominated for the Actress award for Baker Boys - a programme for which Helen Raynor is co-nominated (with Gary Owen) for the Writer prize.

Last year, Doctor Who won two of its categories and The Sarah Jane Adventures was presented with the Children's Programme honour.

This year's winners will be announced at a ceremony to be hosted by Alex Jones at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Sunday 30th September. A limited number of tickets are available to the public and are on sale from the centre.

Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks had an Appreciation Index score of 89 - the highest score by far on either of the main two channels on Saturday night.

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 89 is the highest achieved by Doctor Who since The Big Bang in 2010. It is the highest ever AI score for a season opener.

Asylum of the Daleks had an overnight audience of 6.4 million viewers, a share of 29.3% of the total TV audience.

The audience was steady throughout the show after inheriting 2.5 million viewers from Total Wipeout. The show following Doctor Who, The National Lottery, had 3.1 million watching.

Doctor Who won the time-slot, beating Ant and Dec's game show, Red or Black?, which got a rating of 3.5 million and was 6th for the day. Winner of the day was The X Factor, which had an audience of 8.6 million and a 36.8% share of the audience, making Doctor Who second in the charts for the day.

Casualty was third with 4.2 million watching. Channel 4 achieved 9th place with their coverage of Paralympic Games 2012, while BBC Two peaked in 17th place with Dad's Army. Channel Five achieved 23rd place with Celebrity Big Brother.

Last year's Autumn season opener, Let's Kill Hitler, achieved 6.2m viewers (28.7% share) on overnight figures, later revised to 8.1 million on final figures. Night Terrors, shown the first weekend in September, had an overnight figure of 5.5m (25.9% share) and a final of 7.07m.

The only other episode to be transmitted on 1st September was the first episode of the 1979 story Destiny of the Daleks which had 13.00 million viewers, albeit in an environment where there were only three Television channels available, and one of those, ITV, was locked into a bitter strike which had blacked out screens since 10th August.

Overnight figures are an estimate of those who watched the programme live, or before 2am the following day. Final figures will include all those who watch the porgramme within a week and will be available early next week.

With one day to come, Doctor Who is currently 10th for the week.

UK magazines have this week featured Doctor Who on their covers as the new series approaches.

SFX interviews Steven Moffat about the new series of Doctor Who and the 50th Anniversary.

TV Choice doesn't have the show as their cover but they have an interview with Matt Smith. He teases readers that "Perhaps there are some classic monsters coming back. There’s one I’m very intrigued by, which we haven’t seen for quite some time…". Asked if "we'll be seeing seeing a thing we haven’t seen for quite some time", Smith replied "Well, maybe. We might. A thing we haven’t seen since the series returned to our screens in 2005."

The latest edition of Cardiff Life has been retitled "Dalek Life" and features an 'Eternal' Dalek on the front cover. From pages 46 to 49 they review the new Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff Bay.

Doctor Who also has mentions in Total TV Guide and TV Times.

With just under a week to go to the Power: Reimagined convention in Fareham and with the event date unfortunately clashing with Asylum of the Daleks, attendees - and potential attendees - will be relieved to know that they won't miss out on seeing the Series 7 opening episode.

The convention is being held on Saturday 1st September to celebrate the fan film Power of the Daleks, based on Patrick Troughton's inaugural story as the Doctor, and the event was, of course, arranged long before the BBC decided when to show Asylum of the Daleks.

The convention organisers won't be screening the episode but event attendee Jeremy Bentham has - independently and with the organisers' blessing - found a nearby pub with two 53-inch plasma screens on which the manager has said he is happy to show Doctor Who that evening.

The pub is The Lord Arthur Lee, in West Street, Fareham, which is just a short walk away from where the convention is being held, at Ferneham Hall in Osborn Road.

Please note that the screening of the episode is not connected with the convention, nor is it a launch party as held by Bentham in London in the past, so there is not exclusive use of the pub. It is simply an informal arrangement to ensure that those attending the convention who also want to see the episode "live" that evening can do so.

The first two parts of the fan film, which stars Nick Scovell as the Doctor and features Lisa Bowerman, Nicholas Briggs, and Barnaby Edwards in the cast, have been released via YouTube, with the third and final part due to be webcast at some point next month. The charity convention will see the first showing of the fan reimagining in full on the big screen and in high definition.

Guests at the convention will include Christopher Barry, who directed the original story, and Anneke Wills, who played companion Polly in the six-part adventure. Michael Troughton - son of Patrick and younger brother of David - was also to have been a guest but has had to pull out, citing personal reasons and commitments, say the organisers.

Money raised by the convention will go to Children In Need and Cancer Research UK.

The BBC have released a new trailer to promote Asylum of the Daleks, which premieres on BBC One next Saturday at 7:20pm.

The new series of Doctor Who will premiere on Saturday 1st September, with the show being broadcast on BBC One in the UK at 7:20pm, and on BBC America in the USA at 9:00pm(ET).

United Kingdom (BBC):

For the UK, this places Asylum of the Daleks into the heart of Saturday prime time television, going head to head against the Ant and Dec ITV game show Red or Black?. The Doctor has faced the Geordie duo before, most notably for the return of the series in 2005 when Rose beat Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway by 2.5 million viewers. The Doctor faced Red or Black? last year when ITV1's HD ratings helped Red or Black? edge slightly ahead of Doctor Who, although the latter outrated the game show for the period the programmes were in direct opposition.

On BBC Two the Doctor will be up against BBC Proms 2012 where conductor John Wilson and his orchestra pay tribute to the composers and arrangers responsible for creating the Broadway Sound; meanwhile Channel 4 continues its coverage of the Paralympic Games.

The series will be preceded by a new mini-adventure, Pond Life, which kicks off online from Monday 27th August.

The time of broadcast for Asylum of the Daleks of 7.20pm is one of the latest for the series since it returned in 2005, with only Gridlock in 2007, School Reunion, and Rise of the Cybermen in 2006 being later in the evening.

Trivia: the Daleks have been used to launch the show a few times in its past, with Day of the Daleks in 1972, Destiny of the Daleks in 1979, and Remembrance of The Daleks in 1988 - Destiny also coincidentally premiered on 1st September!

United States (BBC America):

For BBC America, the premiere forms part of the channel's Supernatural Saturday themed evening.
The full press release can be read on BBC America's website. Meanwhile, BBC America have also released a new trailer to promote the series:


The announcement of 1st September confirms that the trailer witnessed by viewers earlier in the week citing the 8th as the launch was accidentally broadcast rather than being the finalised date.

Canada (SPACE):

SPACE have also confirmed a 1st September premiere, at 9:00pm(ET).

Speculation continues over the launch date of the new series of Doctor Who, which, despite a number of Internet expectations, has yet to be confirmed by the BBC.

The return of the series was originally anticipated in the UK for the August Bank Holiday weekend, based upon the pattern of preview screenings of Let's Kill Hitler at the BFI and Edinburgh last year; this date had also been suggested by a number of US media outlets, though it seems that these reports were picked up through fan enthusiasm rather than official sources, especially with BBC America having already announced their series of four Doctor Who documentary specials over the August weekends. Also, when asked at the Asylum of the Daleks screening last week lead writer Steven Moffat would only indicate that the show will return "soon".

With the the 25th August ruled out, focus turned to the 1st September. BBC America have devoted an entire day to Doctor Who, showing the entirety of last year's series plus The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe - the latter's scheduling of two hours (8-10pm) suggested that perhaps there was a missing programme to show at 9pm. The date was also reinforced by iTunes listing the series as being available from 1st September. However, early morning viewers were treated to a trailer on BBC America earlier this week which specifically mentioned an on air date of the 8th September - however, the channel has now reverted to trailers saying the series is coming soon. It is unsure whether the trailer was a mistake or if BBC America jumped the gun on an announcement.

Meanwhile, in the UK the new edition of listings magazine Radio Times announces that "Doctor Who is back!", with the next issue (1-7 Sep) promising a free Dalek wallchart, plus interviews with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffat - the latter also providing an episode guide to the new series. However, the magazine has in recent months carried a number of front-covers/coverage of new shows that aren't necessarily in the week of publication so it isn't clear-cut that Doctor Who will premiere in the UK on the 1st September, and the show is currently absent from the BBC Media Pack for that week, implying the series may have a later debut.


As soon as the date is confirmed it will be reported by Doctor Who News.