New Earth Final Ratings - Updated

Wednesday, 26 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB) today released the final ratings numbers for New Earth: 8.62 million viewers watched the episode in the UK, an increase of 0.63m on the initial overnight figures. BARB figures traditionally are slightly different than overnights, as they take into account research into timeshifted viewing (watching the episode later after recording it). With this, Doctor Who is third place for the week in all UK programs behind ITV1's "Coronation Street" and BBC1's "EastEnders", and places ninth for the week in the top ten airings (as 'Coronation Street' and 'EastEnders' are both shown multiple times, five and three respectively). These figures also leave 'New Earth', a million viewers up on 'Aliens of London' on the same Saturday in 2005, and 0.62m ahead of the series average for last year, making it the fifth most successful episode since Doctor Who's return, only slightly behind the 8.63m achieved by 'Dalek'.

Also, on the non-terrestrial (multi-channel) charts -- digital and satellite broadcasts -- Doctor Who Confidentialepisode one was seen by 761,000 viewers to place seventh overall for the week. The documentary was up by over 30,000 on the overnights and almost a quarter of a million more than was achieved by Confidential on the same Saturday in 2005. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon', Steve Tribe)




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

US Ratings Report: "The Long Game"

Tuesday, 25 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Ratings for the seventh episode of the first season of the new series, The Long Game, on US television on the Sci Fi Channel, are in. The numbers were slightly up from the previous week, averaging a 1.20 household rating with an average viewing audience of 1.4 million viewers, up one-tenth of a million from the previous week's low for "Dalek". Season-to-date, Sci Fi reports that Doctor Who is currently averaging a 1.35 household rating and an average audience of 1.6 million viewers for the season (noting also that the audience, according to their current mid-season demographics, is 64% male/36% female, with a median age of 47 years.)




FILTER: - USA - Ratings - Series 1/27

More Ratings, AI Updates

Monday, 24 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Higher viewing figures frequently mean lower Audience Appreciation figures, and so it proves for Tooth and Claw. Saturday's episode has an AI of 83, a couple of points down on 'New Earth' and tied with last year's 'Father's Day' as the eighth-highest AI for the new series. It remains, of course, an excellent figure, since the overwhelming majority of television programmes score in the 60s or 70s.

Predictably, Sunday night's Coronation Street was watched by enough viewers (9.31m) to push 'Tooth and Claw' into ninth place in the week's top ten, making Doctor Who the week's third most watched television show, behind Coronation Street and EastEnders. Whether timeshift figures will be enough to push the episode any further up the chart remains to be seen...

Figures are also now available for BBC Three's Sunday repeat of the second episode, which was watched by an average of 542,200 viewers, a 3.3% audience share. The episode began with 191,000 viewers, doubled to 383,000 within ten minutes, and peaked at 781,000 at 7.55pm. This is an increase of 158,200 on the previous Sunday's repeat of 'New Earth', and is almost exactly the same as the figure for 'World War Three' (555,000) on the same Sunday last year. (Thanks to Steve Tribe and 'Shaun Lyon')




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

Tooth and Claw Overnight Ratings

Sunday, 23 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Initial overnight viewing figures for Saturday night's new Doctor Who episode Tooth and Claw on BBC1 have come in, and it's good news: an average of 8.9 million viewers watched the episode, with an average 42.3% audience share... a gain of nearly a million viewers over last weekend's "New Earth" which had an average of 8.0 million. According to the individual breakdown of 15-minute intervals, Doctor Who was reported peaking in its last quarter hour at 9.3 million viewers (43.1% share during that fifteen-minute period) and dropped off 4.75m viewers after the episode was over, but even more interestingly, in the ViewingFigures 5-minute interval breakdown, it actually peaked at 10.03 million (44.3%). This is higher even than the peak figure for the preceding FA Cup semi-final (9.91m, of which 1.4m switched off or over as Doctor Who began); this high-profile match was Saturday's second most-watched programme with an average figure of 6.6m (42.6%). ITV, meanwhile, proved no match for "Doctor Who" this week, sustaining just shy of four million viewers at the same time as the episode broadcast. "Doctor Who" is currently in the top-ten for the week's overnight ratings on British television in equal eighth place with Thursday's episode of EastEnders and outrating all five of Emmerdale's episodes. It's likely that 'Tooth and Claw' will end the week in ninth place, as another episode of Coronation Street screens on ITV1 on Sunday evenings, although other Sunday night programmes could yet push Doctor Who out of the top ten in the week's overnights. In comparison with the same weekend last year, 'Tooth and Claw' is well up on the performance of 'World War Three', which had overnights of 7.26m (38%).

Meanwhile, the BBC Three installment of Doctor Who Confidential at 8.00pm scored 616,100 viewers (with a 3.8% audience share), peaking at just after the start at 676,000. It was fourth for the evening on the list of non-terrestrial broadcast channels. And the second edition of Totally Doctor Who last Thursday pulled in 900,000 viewers (8.2%) in its 5pm slot, about the same as Blue Peter's audience size in the same timeslot. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon', Andy Parish)




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

Ratings Update

Saturday, 22 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The overnight result for BBC Three's repeat on Friday shows New Earththat evening with an average audience of 454,000, a share of 2.1%. From 9pm, 406,000 were watching and the audience had climbed to a peak of 510,000 by 9.40pm; the following programme (Three's Outtakes) was watched by 213,000. Doctor Who was BBC Three's second most-watched programme of the night, behind EastEnders, and was second in its multichannel timeslot, behind American Idol (ITV2). The total audience for 'New Earth' (combining its BBC One premiere and both BBC Three repeats) stands at 8.83m, pending any adjustment for 'timeshift' viewings, which should be available in a few days.

BARB's Top 75 Network Programmes chart for 10–16 April has 'New Earth' at Number 12 with 8.0m viewers, behind five episodes of Coronation Street (ranging from 8.6m to 11.0m viewers), four of EastEnders (8.3m to 10.3m) and two of Emmerdale (8.1m and 8.2m), making Doctor Who the fourth-highest-rated show of the week and the highest non-soap. The episode also heads the Top 10 Drama chart. In the Top 25 Multichannel chart, Number 6 is the first edition of Doctor Who Confidential, 'New New Doctor' (Saturday 15, BBC3), which was also the top-rated mutichannel programme on Saturday.

Ratings for episode two of CBBC's Totally Doctor Who, the children's variety tie-in show on Thursday, were up slightly this week, with 900,000 viewers and a share of 8.2%. This is roughly the same viewership numbers attracted to an episode of the long-running show "Blue Peter".




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

US Ratings Report: "Dalek"

Tuesday, 18 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Ratings for Dalek, the sixth episode of the new series broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel in the US, have come in, and are sadly not welcome news. The telecast averaged a 1.17 household rating with an average viewing audience of 1.3 million viewers, making it the lowest rated original Doctor Who broadcast of the season to date. However, it is important to note that this was a holiday weekend, which could explain the sudden drop in viewers from the previous week.




FILTER: - USA - Ratings - Series 1/27

UK Ratings, Audience Appreciation Figures - Updated

Tuesday, 18 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Overnight viewing figures for the weekend beyond the transmission of "New Earth" (which Outpost Gallifrey reported two days ago) are in. The first transmission of Totally Doctor Who, the children's documentary series, on Thursday on BBC1 was seen by 800,000 viewers, while Saturday evening's first Doctor Who Confidential documentary on BBC3 was seen by 732,000 viewers with a 4.7% audience share (the Sunday night repeat had 324,000 viewers, 2.1% audience share). Also, the Sunday evening repeat of New Earth on BBC3 had 384,000 viewers (2.5% audience share), rather low compared to last year's Sunday repeats (621,000 for 'Aliens of London' on the same weekend in 2005)... although this was on a day when good weather saw television audiences in the UK down by 20% or more overall. Confidential's Saturday figure is 21,000 higher than its 2005 equivalent.

Meanwhile, the audience appreciation index (AI) results for Saturday are available, and the transmission of New Earthsecured a rating of 85. This is the highest figure for any programme on UK television on Saturday, Doctor Who's nearest rival being Five's "CSI: New York" with 84. It should be noted that Doctor Who is one of only seven out of forty programmes shown on Saturday to have an AI of over 80; another seven scored 70 or lower, and the rest are in the seventies. The figure suggests an general audience response slightly more positive than that for The Christmas Invasion(84), and makes the episode more widely 'popular' than all but two episodes of the 2005 series - 'Bad Wolf' (86) and 'The Parting of the Ways' (89). (Thanks to Steve Tribe, Andy Parish)




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

New Earth Overnight Ratings

Sunday, 16 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

The first overnight viewing figures are now in for New Earth and it seems to have maintained last year's strong performance: an average of 8.0 million viewers watched the episode, with an average 38.6 per cent audience share. The episode was not only BBC One's top-rated programme on Saturday evening and first in its timeslot, with the main competition - ITV1's Harry Potter movie - being watched by about 4.8m people (23.6%) while Doctor Who was on; it was also Saturday's top-rated television programme, with Casualty second-placed with 7.0m. The start of 'New Earth' saw an increase in BBC One's ratings of 2.1m, from 5.7m (30.9%) to 7.8m (38.5%), rising to a peak of 8.3m (39.0%) for the last fifteen minutes; when the episode finished, 2.9m people switched off BBC One. (This is in line with last year's episodes, when two to three million viewers came and went, specifically for Doctor Who.) These figures are also 1.0 million up on Doctor Who's performance in the overnights on the same Saturday last year ('Aliens of London' on 16 April), when an average of 7.0m (34%) were watching. The ratings success has been reported by BBC News and CBBC News. (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon')




FILTER: - Ratings - UK - Series 2/28

US Ratings Report: "World War Three"

Tuesday, 11 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Ratings for the broadcast of the fifth new Doctor Who episode broadcast on Sci Fi in the US, World War Three, on April 7 have come in. The episode turned around a slight downward trend, rising over two-tenths of a ratings point to 1.42 on the household ratings, with an average viewing audience of 1.6 million viewers -- nearly equalling the number of viewers who turned into the broadcast three weeks before of "The End of the World" which had been (and remains) the show's highest rating so far. Ratings detail shows that the broadcast this week was also up 18% in the coverted men ages 18-34 bracket.




FILTER: - USA - Ratings - Series 1/27

US Ratings Report: "Aliens of London"

Thursday, 6 April 2006 - Reported by Shaun Lyon

Ratings for the broadcast of Doctor Who's fourth new episode, Aliens of London on Sci-Fi, its first US transmission, on March 31 are in. The episode had a 1.20 household rating with an average viewing audience of 1.5 million viewers, a slight drop from the previous week of 1.55 recorded for "The Unquiet Dead". The latest episode was down across the board; the show has experienced a total loss of 21% of household viewers and 16% in audience average since the first episode's transmission, although this was expected because of the curiosity from the episode's first broadcast. Meanwhile, for the rebroadcast of "The Unquiet Dead" immediately prior, 0.65 million viewers tuned in.




FILTER: - USA - Ratings - Series 1/27