Unofficial overnight viewing figures for yesterday show that Saturday's night's broadcast of The Age of Steel was seen by an average audience of 6.9 million viewers, with an audience share of 35.5%. This places it first in its timeslot and second for the day, behind this year's Eurovision Song Contest (8.2m, 37.3%). Doctor Who was 1.6m ahead of the day's third-placed programme The National Lottery Jet Set (5.3m, 26.7%) and 1.8m ahead of its ITV1 competition, The Prince's Trust 30th Birthday Live (5.1m, 23.4%). Viewing figures in the earlier this week's earlier timeslot began at 5.88m, but almost two million viewers joined the programme during the episode, which peaked at 7.73m at around 7.15pm, before the usual dramatic drop in BBC One's figures when Doctor Who finished (down to about 5m). On the same weekend last year, and also moved to an earlier timeslot by the annual Eurovision, The Empty Child's overnights fell to 6.6m (34.9%) from the 7.5m (42.7%) achieved by Father's Day, with 2005's Eurovision at 7.9m (38.8%), so The Age of Steel continues Series Two's consistent year-on-year increase on the ratings for Series One.

Also, on BBC Three, the sixth instalment of Doctor Who Confidential was watched by 591,700 viewers (3.9% audience share). (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon,' Andy Parish)

Ratings for the tenth episode of the first season of the new series, The Doctor Dances, on US television on the Sci Fi Channel, have come in: the telecast had a slightly improved household rating this week of 1.09 with an average of 1.4 million viewers, up nearly a quarter of a million viewers from the previous week's season low. Season-to-date, Sci Fi reports that Doctor Who is currently averaging a 1.30 household rating and an average audience of 1.5 million viewers for the season.

Final ratings are now available for The Girl in the Fireplace, the fourth episode of this new season (broadcast on 6 May). According to the BARB, with timeshifted viewings taken into account, the episode was watched by an average of 7.9 million viewers, making the program the thirteenth most-watched of the week on the list of top fifty programs, and sixth on the list of actual titles (as programs such as "Coronation Street" and "Eastenders" air several episodes). This is an upwards adjustment of approximately half a million additional viewers. Also noted: the BARB rankings for episode 4 ofDoctor Who Confidential which the BARB now reports as being viewed by 728,000 viewers, a slight rise of approximately 4,000 viewers.

According to unofficial overnight figures, Saturday's episode on BBC One,Rise of the Cybermen was watched by an average audience of 8.6m, an audience share of 39.7% and comfortably ahead of the 3m viewers for the ITV1 competition, another showing of The X Men. Beginning 23 minutes later than scheduled, it was the highest-rated show of the day and looks likely to appear in the week's top ten, behind Coronation Street and EastEnders. The five-minute breakdowns for the evening show the effects of the overrunning football match earlier in the day, with most programmes gaining viewers around the time that the next programme was due to start - Strictly Dance Fever ended at 7.20 with an audience of 7.61m, which Rise of the Cybermen gradually increased to a peak of 9.65m in its own last few minutes; that audience, however, immediately dropped to 6.51m when Doctor Who finished. The 9.65m peak is far short of the 11.3m that were watching the climax of the FA Cup Final - that match's average figure of 6.55m takes into account the entire Match of the Day programme that ran from 1pm, not just the match itself, although a proportion of the 11 million viewers had presumably switched on for the scheduled evening news. Rise of the Cybermen was watched by 0.6m more people than Father's Day on the same weekend in 2005, continuing Series Two's improved performance against last year's ratings success.

The audience Appreciation Index (AI) for the episode was 86. This is not only the highest of the second series, it is also among the highest for Doctor Who since the series return - only The Parting of the Ways (89) scored higher.

Meanwhile, Saturday's edition of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC Three was the top-rated multichannel programme of Saturday, with an audience of 712,500 (4% audience share). Sunday's repeat of Rise of the Cybermen on BBC Three was watched by a further 624,900 viewers (3.9% audience share), peaking at 758,000 viewers in its last five minutes, and was third-placed in the multichannel top ten for the day, while Sunday's Confidentialrepeat scored 331,100 viewers (1.9% audience share). (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon,' Andy Parish)

Final viewing figures for the season's third episode, School Reunion(broadcast on April 29), are in: according to the BARB, with timeshifted viewings taken into account, the episode was watched by an average of 8.31 million viewers, the twelfth most watched programme of the week and the fifth highest ranking television show. This is an upwards adjustment of approximately 700,000 additional viewers. Also, BBC3 repeat of "School Reunion" on Friday night May 5 was watched by 430,900 viewers (2.8% audience share), seventh for the evening on the non-terrestrial channels, peaking at 471,200 viewers. Interestingly, the earlier repeat of "School Reunion" on Sunday April 30 achieved a massive Audience Appreciation Index (AI) score of 89.

Meanwhile, the latest transmitted episode this season, The Girl in the Fireplace broadcast last Saturday (May 6), achieved another high initial AI figure of 84, the second-highest ranking of Saturday evening. The Sunday evening (May 7) repeat of the episode on BBC3 was watched by 686,000 viewers (3.5% audience share) according to Viewingfigures, peaking in the five-minute intervals at the end of the transmission to 878,000 viewers, ranked fifth in the non-terrestrial channels for the evening. The installment of "Doctor Who Confidential Cut Down" that immediately preceded it had 299,000 viewers (1.8% audience share). The AI ranking for the Saturday night episode of "Confidential" (May 6) was 82. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon,' Andy Parish)

Ratings for the ninth episode of the first season of the new series, The Empty Child, on US television on the Sci Fi Channel, have come in: the telecast had a household rating of 1.04 with an average of 1.2 million viewers, a drop of a tenth of a million viewers and the lowest broadcast of the new season to date. (The broadcast took place on Cinco de Mayo, however, with viewing levels possibly affected in the evening; ratings on the broadcast networks were also noticeably down that night.) Season-to-date, Sci Fi reports that Doctor Who is currently averaging a 1.29 household rating and an average audience of 1.5 million viewers for the season.

Early news of overnight viewing figures for Saturday's new Doctor Who episode The Girl in the Fireplace on BBC1 are in: an average of 7.4 million viewers watched the episode, with an average 36.6% audience share, down only 0.2 million from the previous week's "School Reunion". According to the ViewingFigures report on 15-minute intervals the episode peaked in the final segment (7.30-7.45) to 7.8 million viewers, while the five-minute statistics show a peak up to 8.10 million viewers between 7.35 and 7.40pm right before the end of the episode. The huge climb of viewership between the start of the episode in the five-minute intervals (6.26 million at 7.00pm, to 7.39 million at 7.15pm, over a million extra viewers) suggest that UK audiences were unprepared for the move of the series to the 7.00pm time slot this week, as it had begun at 7.15pm the previous three weeks.

"Doctor Who" was again the #1 rated show on UK television on Saturday both by viewers as well as by audience share.

Meanwhile, the broadcast of the fourth episode of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC3 immediately afterward attracted 724,400 viewers, with a 4.7% audience share. Doctor Who Confidential was #1 for Saturday broadcast on the non-terrestrial channels. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon', Andy Parish)

General TV Series NewsMay 3, 2006 • Posted By Shaun Lyon
Ratings for the eighth episode of the first season of the new series, Father's Day, on US television on the Sci Fi Channel, are in. The numbers varied from those as reported the previous week; while the average household rating was slightly down, to 1.14, the average viewing audience held at 1.4 million viewers. (We don't know what the exact relationship is between the rating and the viewership figures, apart from the fact that the viewer numbers held this week.) Season-to-date, Sci Fi reports that Doctor Who is currently averaging a 1.32 household rating and an average audience of 1.5 million viewers for the season.

Saturday's episode, School Reunion, achieved the joint highest AI (measuring audience appreciation) of the bank holiday weekend, with both the episode of Doctor Who and Five's CSI: New York both scoring 85. This is the same score as New Earth secured a couple of weeks ago, making these Series Two episodes two of the five most popular instalments since the return of the series (see OG news, 18 April).

Sunday evening's BBC Three repeat of School Reunion attracted an average of 599,400 viewers (4.1%), 57,200 up on the previous Sunday's Tooth and Claw repeat, and about 60,000 up on the Sunday repeat of Dalek on the same Sunday in 2005. School Reunion was BBC Three's second-placed programme on Sunday, behind the sitcom Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, and was fifth in the multichannel top ten, behind two editions of The Simpsons, the Two Pints episode, and a Sky Sports programme.

We also have a detailed breakdown demonstrating the series' popularity among children in the UK: of School Reunion's 7.6m overnight average, 1.2m were under 16, an audience share of 55%. Doctor Who is by far the most-watched television programme among children, its nearest rival being BBC One's EastEnders (0.9m, 36.7%). The ITV1 competition on Saturday, the Hulk movie, reached only 0.3m under-16s (18.3%). Interestingly, the same chart shows that, while Totally Doctor Who's audience of 0.8m is equivalent to the figures for Blue Peter, only 0.3m (up to 19%) of the viewers for each children's show are actually children.

Meanwhile, the BARB consolidated ratings for the BBC One transmission ofTooth and Claw on Saturday 22 April are now available. With timeshifted viewings taken into account, the episode was watched by an average of 9.24m viewers, the tenth most watched programme of the week (behind five episodes of Coronation Street and four episodes of EastEnders) and the third highest television show. This is an increase of 0.62m on the previous week's episode and is 1.26m higher than the 7.98m achieved by World War Three on the same Saturday in 2005.

The second edition of Doctor Who Confidential, Fear Factor on Saturday 22 April, was BBC Three's top-rated show of the week, with 0.65m viewers, reaching number 16 in the week's multichannel chart. The Sunday evening repeat of Tooth and Claw charts at number eight for the channel with 0.56m.

Finally, ratings analysis in this week's edition of Broadcast concentrates on Doctor Who's performance on 22 April: 'The second episode of Doctor Who on BBC1 on Saturday at 7.15pm improved by almost a million to 8.8 million, a 42% share. This was thanks in part to a strong lead-in from the big FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Liverpool from 4.50pm which attracted 6.5 million, a 43% share. The previous week's opening episode was hamstrung by Strictly Dance Fever's poor 3.8 million/22% and by ITV1's decision to offer a strong holiday movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which took 4.9 million, enough to hit the Doctor's share. This week, by contrast, ITV1 pretty much conceded the night by starting with a repeat of Midsomer Murders from 6pm which had just 3.3 million/18% share.' (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon', Steve Tribe)

Early news of overnight viewing figures for Saturday's new Doctor Who episode School Reunion on BBC1 are in: an average of 7.6 million viewers watched the episode, with an average 39.8% audience share (peaking very briefly as high as 8.88 million viewers in the final five minutes according to the interval breakdowns.) While this is down over a million viewers from the overnights for the previous episode ("Tooth and Claw"), all of UK television experienced a downturn in ratings due to this weekend's bank holiday; Doctor Who was, in fact, in first place in Saturday's program schedule on all networks by both audience numbers and by share.

Meanwhile, the third episode of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC3 was viewed by an average of 565,800 viewers, with a 3.8% audience share, ranking #2 on the total Saturday night viewership on the non-terrestrial channels (behind a sporting event.) Many viewers noted that the BBC3 broadcast started approximately one minute prior to the end of the episode on BBC1, though this likely did not affect the ratings. More details soon. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon')