Doctor Who - The New Series

(Audience Viewing Figures 2005-2013)

Click here for the Classic Series figures.

Click here to go back to the Doctor Who Home Page.

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OK, so I did the Classic Series. Now I might as well do the New Series.

This is a bit more complicated as we have things like Finals, Overnights and Timeshifts. Also we have over a hundred more channels, and an audience that is a lot more savvy than it was 40 years ago. If you know nothing about the viewing figures for Doctor Who since the 2005 revival you may find this interesting. Basically it's doing a lot better than you would think if you listened to your Doctor Who fan friend and read The Sun.

Series 1 Series 2 Series 3 Series 4 The Specials Series 5 Series 6 Series 7 Series 8 Series 9 Series 10

As mentioned above, BARB viewing figures are more sophisticated now. Fandom in particular gets awfully bent out of shape about the dwindling numbers of people who watch Doctor Who "on the night". Although we can never really know why more people are choosing to record Doctor Who and watch it later, it is a safe bet that it isn't because they don't like the programme anymore. The Final viewing figures are much the same as they were when the programme came back in 2005. So what's going on?

It's probably because Doctor Who can be watched either at broadcast time, or a day to a week later, and it doesn't spoil your enjoyment. Doctor Who is now often pitched against Ant & Dec, The X-Factor, or Britain's Got Talent - all programmes that feature phone-ins at some stage or another. It's no good watching the X-Factor the next day if you want to vote, because the lines will be closed. Doctor Who has no such restriction. So why not save it till later? Alternately, if Who is on during the summer, then why not stay out a bit longer to enjoy the sun, safe in the knowledge that your SKY+ box is recording Doctor Who for you to watch the next day?

Here's how the habit of Timeshifting has increasingly affected Doctor Who's ratings over the last 12 years:

Here's the ratings for the Christmas Specials (now I've included The Next Doctor and The End of Time two-parter here as well as in The Specials season, as both of them did take the place of a Christmas show):

And finally, an overall view of the average figures for each season (including Series 8):