Overnights for Saturday April 3rd 2010:
Last night's Doctor Who (Fifth Series), which I found surprisingly good, launched to strong 7.66 million viewers and a 36.90% share according to the BBC. It also states that the show had a peak audience of 8.45 million viewers. The article also refferences the fact that the last Doctor Who special (which saw David Tennant leave as the Doctor) logged 10.40 million viewers, it was also down slight on the fourth series debut on BBC1 back in 2008 (two years ago) which took 8.40 million viewers. Update: A further 338,000 watched Doctor Who on BBC HD.
The article also states that Harry Hill's TV Burp hit 3.5 million viewers (down 40% in overnight figures on the previous week) for ITV1. Update: However it was clip show
BBC1's The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins took 5.32 million viewers, while just before it Over The Rainbow took 5.41 million viewers. Then at 9.30pm Casualty took 5.52 million viewers for BBC1.
ITV1's Push The Button (a double bill) took took 3.95 million viewers, then The Door logged 3.50 million viewers.
Sky's 3D channel (launched in 1,000 pubs) launched at 3pm to 1.737 million viewers during midday.
More overnights (for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to come - again very sorry for delay).
For previous days UK TV ratings click here
Note: Channel 4’s and E4’s ratings are boosted slight thanks to their +1 timeshifted channels but I include them together due to the fact its only timeshifted by one hour (similar to the 9/8c ratings in america). Also these are unoffical overnight ratings and will subject to change in BARB final ratings due to timeshift audience.
Nice. It was a really really great episode! So excited about this new series! All my other shows feel like a chore to watch right now but I was actually CRAZY excited about this!
These are great ratings, Well deserved start to what looks like an excellent series.
One point to note about Harry Hill though is that it was a Best of episode rather than a new episode.
Erm I don't really think it's fair to non UK folk to use the current image it is a bit of a massive spoiler since the reveal of the creature is a surprise.
I'm very optimistic about the ratings for Doctor Who, Matt Smith and Steven Moffat have recieved universal critical acclaim and I think the average ratings for this series could exceed previous ones.
I was very very impressed with the episode it pretty much blew me away.
I have updated the pic
Thank you very much for changing that
Doctor Who was awesome. I haven't enjoyed something just that much in a long time. Matt Smith is already the Doctor, and pretty soon he'll convince even the toughest of the nay-sayers, I think. Karen Gillan is adorable and already has great chemistry with the Doctor. The preview at the end of the episode was excellent.
How are ratings for MI 5 in the UK?
I always wonder if UK ratings show that the US Nielsen ratings are totally inaccurate. 8-10 million people in the UK watch a Doctor Who episode in a country that only has 61 million people. We have 5 times that many and aside from very few shows, we get the same number of viewers for a show. For example LOST gets about the same number of viewers according to Nielsen ratings as Dr. Who does in the UK. Strangely, you get a group of otherwise diverse people together and ask all who watch LOST to raise their hands and you get about 20-25% of the crowd.
Despite Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, I'm glad to see it came back strong from Christopher Eccleston onwards. My wife and I have to get round to watching this sometime!
In the USA about 85 percent of the homes are wired up via cable or satellite or teleco services to a minimum of dozens of choices on basic cable. My understanding is in the UK most homes still don't have nearly as much choice. Fin and others will correct that if it's wrong
Just so people can compare, previous Doctor Who season premieres have rated in the overnights as follows. (Note: There was no season in 2009)
Season 1 [2005]: 9.9m
Season 2 [2006]: 8.0m
Season 3 [2007]: 8.2m
Season 4 [2008]: 8.4m
Season 5 [2010]: 8.0m
In the UK a scripted drama would be considered a hit on BBC1, if it scored say 5 million plus during primetime. So 8 million at 6:25pm is pretty amazing.
there might not have been a “season” in 2009 but there was “Waters of Mars” and “The End of Time” parts 1&2 though part 2 officially aired in 2010. I forget how “Mars” did in the BBC, but End of Time part 1 did 10 million on Christmas (down from 2008's 11.7 million on Christmas) and Pt. 2 did 10.4 million on New Year's day (2010)
Aside from there probably being a lot more splintering of viewership in the US due to more channel choices… different countries. Apples and oranges. I don't see how viewing patterns in another country can either prove or disprove that the Nielsen in this country are accurate.
It would be interesting to know how many channels the average UK viewer gets.
I already like Matt Smith better than David Tennant (and Chris Eccleston), not that it would have taken much. So he's ranked #9 on my list of favorite Doctors.
Was there not “Planet of the Dead” this time last year as well? Can't remember quite how it did in the ratings though.
Proberly, but to be fair our population is much smaller (60 vs. 300 million – 5x difference), we also have 50 free channels (freeview) compared to your 20. Also we have 480 channels, but with just 49.50% of all households (according to late 2008 reports – I couldn't find anything earlier, so its proberly gone up quite a lot) having access to cable or pay satellite. Also Cable viewing in the UK is inflating much like that of the US, where cable shows seem to be getting stronger. Though in terms of more choice (for drama at least) I would agree there.
Johnfisch,
I think its unfair to compare a big UK show like Doctor Who (a strong show in the UK – plus Doctor who doesn't average 8-10 million, normally more like 7-8 million) to a show like Lost which doesn't pull the huge viewer numbers in the US (general viewers not 18-49 viewers).
It's amazing how they keep it going changing the main actors. I can't find it any where I like to see the brit version. When will it be shown on the Sy-fy channel? Is it on Americas BBC?
April 17th 2010 (two weeks on saturday) – thought I'm not sure about the time.
And they have a few stations who broadcast to the entire country – which is not the same as a network which sorta sends some of their stuff via hundreds of small stations.
Good point, I havn't even thought of that – but I doubt its that major but it does make such comparison very hard.
Why do they edit on BBC America, do they show a little more T&A? I thought of getting the extra channel pak, but not if they edit it. Is it worth it?