The Ratings Thread

[Si Hunt]

Rip-off? "Homage" surely?

Si.

[SiHart]

Like most of the Hinchcliffe era, Doctor Who is back to himaging popular films. I thought people would like that

[Andrew Curnow]

Well done Si!

[FlyingBeastie]

or just incredibly like a rip off of pirates of the caribeen.

Yes.

And yes it's a ripoff if in about two months you're going to have a film specifically about pirates and mermaids. Not only that, but this coming episode just looks bad.

I can see the majority of the episode taking place on the bridge that is obviously on a soundstage or in Blackbeard's (or whomever Hugh Bonneville is playing) quarters.

Mark my words. This episode is going to be a stinker and an eyesore.

And can someone tell me where, in a kiss-o-gram's "training", do they teach sword fighting?

And it's not an homage if the film hasn't come out yet.

[SiHart]

And it's not an homage if the film hasn't come out yet.

Well, according to DWM the writer says it's based on an old Cornish legend immortalised in writing in the village where he lives. So it's probably a coincidence actually. Pirate of the Caribbean isn't the first story to feature pirates and mermaids you know.

[SiHart]

Anyway, getting this back on topic:

Doctor Who: Day of the Moon5.4 million viewers tuned in to watch Day of the Moon in the UK yesterday, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The rating is a drop of a million on the series opener, not helped by the early timeslot and the sunny weather across the UK for the Bank Holiday weekend. However Doctor Who was still the second most watched programme on British television Saturday Night, with Britain's Got Talent once more topping the charts with 9.5 million. Nothing else on Saturday night achieved more then 5.0 million viewers.

Up against Doctor Who, New People Do the Funniest Things on ITV1 was watched by 1.9 million, up half a million on the programme shown last week.

Doctor Who inherited just 1.7 million viewers from its predecessor, Don't Scare the Hare, which, with an average of just 1.4 million viewers has lost a quarter of its viewers since last week, not surprisingly as the premier show achieved one of the poorest AI scores of all time. Doctor Who's audience peaked at 5.7 million for the last 15 minutes, with the BBC One audience dropping to 2.9 million as the programme finished.

Od the audience, 0.67 million watched on BBCOne HD.

Doctor Who is currently 35th for the week. although this position should change substantially when final figures are released and a top twenty place is still possible.

On BBC Three, Doctor Who Confidential had 0.36 million viewers, with an additional 32,000 watching on BBC HD, a drop of 200,000 on last week, not helped by the gap between the end of Doctor Who on BBC One and the start of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC Three.

And:

The Impossible Astronaut had a final consolidated audience figure of 8.86 million viewers, a 43.3% share of the total TV audience, according to figures released by Barb.

The number includes those who recorded the programme for viewing within 7 days of its initial showing. The figure is over two million higher than the initial overnight reported rating. A full report for the week, which will reveal the shows position in the weekly charts will be released by Barb on Tuesday.

The figures do not include those watching on iPlayer, where over 300,000 accessed the programme within the first two days following transmission.

The Impossible Astronaut had roughly the same final audience as other new series openers, excluding those with a new Doctor. New Earth had 8.6 million, Smith And Jones 8.7m and Partners In Crime 9.1 million.

An additional 0.47 million watched the BBC Three repeat on Friday.

[FlyingBeastie]

Why is the weather and timeslot being pushed as being such a game changer?

What time was Who on last year for you folks?

[SiHart]

It was on earlier in the year last year, and the weather here is absolutely exceptional for April/ early May. Far better than the seasonal average would suggest is normal.

[Paul Clement]

Added to that, the Bank Holiday meant that a lot of people would have gone out and returned home after the earlier start time.

[FlyingBeastie]

Would you say that would effect ratings so strongly?

We don't have that problem here in the US cos our primetime is always after 8pm. Also, Friday and Saturday nights are automatically seen as "Graveyard" slots (shows that are given those slots are ones on the way off the air) And then there's primetime Sunday, again, big shows don't come on till 8pm.

Saturday weren't always like this- we had Xena and Hercules, and eventually Jack of All Trades and Cleopatra 2525.

But, yeah, essentially we keep the big programming for the middle of the week or Sunday late at night because of when people get home from work or when they'll simply be home.

Fridays and Saturdays are seen as days when people won't likely be home.

Hence I find it odd that weather and holidays can be seen as game changers for ratings.

[SiHart]

It makes a huge difference- we don't have all that many great sunny days here and I think lots of people have taken the bank holidays as an excuse to go away

[FlyingBeastie]

As the weeks go on and summer gets here, do you think it will continue to be a factor along with the time slot?

[Paul Clement]

As the weeks go on and summer gets here, do you think it will continue to be a factor along with the time slot?

It will still be a factor at the current timeslot, though probably not as much without the Bank Holiday. Keep in mind though, this current run will finish before we get to what we laughingly term summer in the UK.

[Si Hunt]

It still amazes me that the myth we don't get a summer/good weather in the UK perpetuates. We've just one of the hottest March/April's on record. Yet come July people will still be moaning if it rains. We may not get the hot weather at the same time every year, but it always comes. I quite like that unpredictability.

Si.

[Paul Clement]

It's not all that much of a myth though. We do get hot weather, but it doesn't seem to happen in summer that often. It's a shame that when the kids have their summer holidays, they get a lot of days with weather that's too poor to go out and do things in.

[Paul Clement]

October of last year was pretty good weather wise too. The three weeks I was still in Kent, while Treena and the kids had moved to the Isle of Wight, they had beach visiting weather.

[SiHart]

Excellent article on the ratings here at SFX: http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/05/03/pure...-a-good-thing/

[FlyingBeastie]

Could the show be a little darker? Could the show be a little more complex?

I have a problem with darker.

I'll give you complex, but darker?

RTD had a higher body count series one than Moffat's series one.

Apart from lighting, this show isn't darker.

[Rob McCow]

It is darker, because it's going out of it's way to be scary. The scene where the lady is killed in the toilets is one of the darkest they've done, in real terms.

[Si Hunt]

Yes, darkness does not equal deaths. People die in "Aliens of London" but I wouldn't call it a "dark" adventure.

The overall tone, mood and menace of the last two episodes has been far darker I think.

Si.

[Si Hunt]

"The Impossible Astronaut" is the 14th highest placed episode in the ratings ever.

Barb have now issued final ratings for the week ending 24 April making Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut the 6th most watched programme of the week.

The chart is dominated by soaps with Lewis in 19th place and The Reckoning at 20th the only other non soap programmes to make the top 20.

The overnight chart saw the show in 13th place, the rise being due to the large number of people who record Doctor Who for viewing later in the week.

The Impossible Astronaut becomes the 44th episode of Doctor Who to achieve a top ten place. It is a higher chart placing than any other season premier in the show's history, apart from the Eleventh Doctor's first episode, The Eleventh Hour, which was 3rd.

Out of 771 Doctor Who episodes broadcast, only 13 have achieved a higher chart placing.

[SiHart]

Yay! Great result there

[Paul Clement]

It goes to show how little the initial viewing figures matter nowadays.

[SiHart]

Everyone's got an opinion on the ratings, although the BBC seem quite happy: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/do...-says-bbc.html

[Andrew Curnow]

They really should call an episode "The Time Shift Factor" one of these days, just for the laugh!