The TV Tonight blog confirms that the Doctor Who 2010 Christmas special, A Christmas Carol, will make its Australian debut on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Boxing Day, Sunday 26 December 2010 at 7.30pm on ABC1. As TV Tonight reports, this will be the first time ever an episode of Doctor Who will air in Australia within 24 hours of its UK debut.

Final Ratings for Series four of The Sarah Jane Adventures are now available.

This year each episode premièred on the digital Children's Channel CBBC on a Monday and Tuesday before being repeated on the mainstream BBC One later in the week. The exception to this was The Nightmare Man which was repeated on BBC Two as The Commonwealth Games were being shown on BBC One.

The series has done incredibly well on CBBC with Part One of The Empty Planet now holding the record for the highest rated programme on CBBC. The series was boosted with the apperance of Matt Smith and Katy Manning in Death of the Doctor half way through the series, with most of the audience staying with the show until the end.

On BBC One the average rating for the series was 0.52 million or 0.49 million if the BBC Two showings are added in. The BBC One average for this timeslot for the year so far is 0.46 million. The fact that The Sarah Jane Adventures beats this, dispute this being the second showing of the week, is very impressive.

By comparison the average BBC One audience for other CBBC programmes was Junior Masterchief 0.72 million; Blue Peter 0.44 million; Gastronuts 0.42 million; Relic: Guardians of the Museum 0.42 million; Amimals at Work 0.29 million; My Genius Idea 0.27 million.

The highest combined rating was for Part One of Lost in Time which had a total of 1.57 million viewers across both channels. Last year the series peaked with 1.59 million watching The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith.

This year the total average for the series was 1.29 million viewers. Last year the BBC One average was 1.01 million.

Three items from the classic series of Doctor Who have been listed for Bonham's Entertainment Memorabilia Sale, taking place in Knightsbridge on Wednesday 15th December from midday.
The showroom is open for sale viewings beforehand, daily from Sunday 12th December.

Betting company Paddy Power have collated odds on which television programme will top the Christmas Day ratings this year; as of today Doctor Who is currently believed to be the fourth most likely show to claim the coveted spot.

Paddy Power Odds (30 Nov)
2/5   Eastenders
5/1   The Royle Family
      Coronation Street
8/1   Doctor Who
12/1  Emmerdale
      Upstairs Downstairs
14/1  Queen's Speech
      Top Gear
16/1  Strictly Come Dancing
20/1  The One Ronnie
25/1  Come Fly With Me
      BBC News
33/1  Rock and Chips
      Harry Hill's TV Burp
40/1  Top of the Pops
50/1  The Nativity

Last year saw similar expectations for the shows vying for the top; however the final result was controversial in terms of the ratings, as the launch of BBCHD gave viewers a choice of channel to watch the show on - thus Doctor Who was the most watched programme overall on television that day, but third in individual channel ratings (see our chart for details).

Not so much a problem in previous years, with clear-cut ratings breakdowns showing:

2005: Eastenders, 10.60m(1)
      The Christmas Invasion, 9.84m(2)
2006: The Vicar of Dibley, 12.39m(1)
      Eastenders, 9.40m/11.56m(3/2)
      The Runaway Bride, 9.35m(4)
2007: Eastenders, 14.38m(1)
      Voyage of the Damned 13.31m(2)
2008: Wallace and Gromit, 16.15m(1)
      The Next Doctor, 13.10m(2)

How will Doctor Who fare this year? The HD division should not be an issue this year (BBC1 and BBC1HD are considered to be the same channel, and not separate like the BBCHD channel), but the traditional competition is on hand to give us a good fight for the top spot on the day!

The BBC has confirmed this year's Doctor Who Christmas special, A Christmas Carol with be shown on BBC One and BBC One HD, on Christmas Day at 6pm.

Final schedules were signed off this afternoon. Doctor Who has been shown at 6pm on Christmas Day for the last two years.

This year Doctor Who will be preceded by The One Ronnie, a variety show starring Ronnie Corbett and will be followed by Christmas Editions of Strictly Come Dancing, featuring John Barrowman, and EastEnders.

The programme has already been confirmed for transmission on Christmas Day in the United States on BBC America at 9pm ET and on Boxing Day in Canada on SPACE at 9pm ET and in Australia on ABC 1 at 7.30pm.

A version of the mobile game The Mazes of Time is to come out for the popular Android operating system as well as the already reported Apple platforms, if an advert published by the game's author Oli Smith is accurate.

The author's article was posted on the 23rd November, a day before the official announcement, so the decision may have changed - though a link to the advert was posted today by Tag Games on their Twitter feed.

Oli Smith wrote of the game:

As we expected last week, Doctor Who once again adorns the cover of a Radio Times for Christmas, this year on the issue dated 11th-17th December 2010. The cover art features Matt Smith, Sir Michael Gambon, and Katherine Jenkins "taking the trip of their lives", with the magazine featuring a three page article on the forthcoming Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol.

As well as discussing the programme, Matt Smith reflects on his first Christmas outing as the Doctor:
Katherine Jenkins also talks about getting what is her first acting role:
You can read more about the Special, Matt Smith and Katherine Jenkins's thoughts of working alongside Sir Michael Gambon - plus their own singing talents - in the issue, available in the shops from 2nd December. The traditional double-issue of the Radio Times for the Christmas period will follow a couple of days later on the 4th December.


This is the sixth consecutive year that there has been a special cover for Doctor Who at Christmas, one for each Christmas since the series returned (seven covers if you also include the Dalek-variant version of the Christmas 2009 edition). You can see these and all other Doctor Who covers on the Radio Times website.

Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy has indicated that he would like to return to Doctor Who for a 50th Anniversary special of the show in 2013 if one were to be made.

Speaking to BBC News, the actor said:

The actor expressed his feelings during an interview about his new role in the first ever stage production of Evelyn Waugh's play, Decline and Fall, opening today at the Old Red Lion Theatre, Islington.

Series four of The Sarah Jane Adventures comes to Australia this Friday.

The Australian version of Nickelodeon will be showing the series starting with The Nightmare Man Part One at 7.00pm, followed by Part Two at 7.25pm.

Final ratings for the CBBC showing of the final two episodes of the series, give Part One of Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith a rating of 0.82 million with Part Two getting 0.81 million watching. Final figures for the BBC One showing will be out later this week.

Last week games designer Tag Games announced that Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time will be launched in December for the Apple iPhone/iPod/iPad platforms. BBC Worldwide have now released a couple of screenshots to illustrate how the game will look:

Tag Games also reported the shots on their blog:
You can follow news about The Mazes of Time on the Twitter feeds from BBC Worldwide Games (@BBCWGames) and Tag Games (@taggames)