‘Doctor Who’ Showrunner Russell T. Davies Admits Show’s Ratings Are “Not Doing That Well”
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies recently confirmed that the show is “not doing well in the ratings.”
As reported by Radio Times, Davies made an appearance at a BAFTA event called A Life in Pictures: Russell T. Davies where he confirmed the show’s ratings are not good.
Davies stated, “In coming back, I wanted to make it simpler and I wanted to make it younger. Those two things are often not discussed – you read reactions to it and people are missing that. It’s simpler and younger – and it is working. The under-16s and the 16-34 audience as well is massive.”
However, despite this spin, he did admit the truth, “It’s not doing that well in the ratings, but it is doing phenomenally well with the younger audience that we wanted.”
A BBC spokesman has also attempted to push this spin informing Radio Times, “Doctor Who remains one of the most-watched programmes on iPlayer and is the BBC’s top drama for under-35s this year, making it one of the biggest programmes for the demographic across all streamers and broadcasters.”
The spokesman also bragged about the season’s premiere, which has only brought in 6 million viewers after nearly two months, “This season of Doctor Who premiered on iPlayer nearly 24 hours before broadcast, and episode 1 has already been viewed by nearly 6 million viewers and continues to grow.”
Davies previously admitted the show’s ratings were not good. As reported by Doctor Who TV, he told Radio Times, “I’m very proud of it! You know, they might not be the ratings we’d love. We always want higher. But they are building over the 28-day period. Episode 1, Space Babies, is already up to 5.6 million and counting. So it is getting there.”
He also attempted to spin the show as a success because it was allegedly reaching a “youthful audience.” Davies said, “I was brought back in to bring in a youthful audience. That’s been massively successful. The audience no one ever gets are the under-30s. They just don’t watch television anymore. But those figures are astronomic for Doctor Who, it’s their top programme in that bracket.”
As Davies notes the ratings for the show are not doing well. The season premiere only brought in 2.6 million viewers in overnight numbers and after a week that number only grew to 4.01 million. That means that in two months the episode has only received 2 million more views.
The ratings got worse from there. The show’s seventh episode, the penultimate one, saw the series’ worst overnight ratings with just 2.02 million. The fifth episode had the worst ratings after a week with 3.38 million.
As for the claim that the show has the best numbers for under-35s, that appears to be more of a reflection on how poorly the company’s other shows have performed with that demographic.
Clearly, Doctor Who is not performing well as Davies admits.
