New Doctor Who series

[IndigoPrime]

kids really don't watch live TV any more

Can confirm, at least in this household. I think the last thing we watched live with our 9yo was the women's World Cup final last summer. She these days watches a lot on iPlayer, but nothing live. She wants to watch things when she wants to watch them. TBF, so do we. Even with the very rare 'live' TV we watch (mostly things like Sewing Bee), we watch on iPlayer.

[Vector14]

Same here, our kids introduction to TV came via streaming services. No going back to live now.

Only thing I watch on broadcast TV is live sports too.

[judgeurko]

Only a couple million. The general audience don't care anymore.

There's no way to infer that from the viewing figures. Those numbers don't include iPlayer or Disney+ — if the show is being more directly and firmly targetted at a younger audience, kids really don't watch live TV any more.

[EDIT: Ninja-ed by IP.]

I guess. But the xmas special got about twice as much. There was a drop in viewers from episode 1 to 2. If this had been the first episode of the Chibnall era so many 'fans' would have been saying how it has failed. But I think RTD will probably get a Get Out Of Jail Free card. & the first episode of the 13th Doctor's series got about 8 million views, have viewing habits changed so much in a relatively short time?. The UK midnight release on iPlayer has impacted on the viewing figures I think. Will be interesting to see a total once those are collated.

[judgeurko]

The ratings are broadcast. They don't include people watching on iPlayer, which may well be a significant number when factored in. And I suspect the numbers on Disney+ will be more important in the long run.

That said, I'm unsure whether these are the episodes to get people on board. I can imagine a lot of "what the fuck was that?" And the horribly messy way in which we transitioned from 13 to 15 hasn't helped. A clean break and starting completely afresh would have made more sense, but there you go. It's not like the show has ever made a lot of sense. It's always been messy to some degree.

True but previous overnight ratings have been a lot higher before taking into account iPlayer. I agree these episodes seem a strange way of getting new viewers into the show.

[IndigoPrime]

Context is everything. Christmas: lots of people were excited about the refresh of the show, and it was aired on Christmas Day, when families are together and probably fancied something fun to watch. This Saturday was a new series, sure, but not the debut for the new Doctor, and the weather was astonishingly good for the time of year.

I'm sure we'll know more in the long run. Although there is a sense that RTD can do no wrong, and that may counter anything that does turn out to be a negative, to some degree. (Honestly, I wasn't overly thrilled by his return, given all the shit that went on during Eccleston's run, and also on the basis of the manner in which he writes. But it is what it is.)

[nxylas]

We won't know how well it is doing until the +7 figures come in, maybe even the +28, though the biggest boost seems to be within the week after broadcast, with fewer people being added after that.

[judgeurko]

We won't know how well it is doing until the +7 figures come in, maybe even the +28, though the biggest boost seems to be within the week after broadcast, with fewer people being added after that.

Yep but it is far worse than most other overnight figures for the show.

[Jim_Campbell]

Yep but it is far worse than most other overnight figures for the show.

But... as pointed out already, the target audience for the show has clearly changed to a much younger demographic who are unlikely to watch broadcast TV. I'm not saying the numbers will be great whenever they finally get tallied up, just that if they've lost [X] million older viewers from the live broadcast but gained [X+1] million younger ones on platforms that don't register in the overnights, then we can't infer much from the overnights, other than fewer people watched the show 'live'.

[judgeurko]

Yep but it is far worse than most other overnight figures for the show.

But... as pointed out already, the target audience for the show has clearly changed to a much younger demographic who are unlikely to watch broadcast TV. I'm not saying the numbers will be great whenever they finally get tallied up, just that if they've lost [X] million older viewers from the live broadcast but gained [X+1] million younger ones on platforms that don't register in the overnights, then we can't infer much from the overnights, other than fewer people watched the show 'live'.

How do you know the target audience for the show has clearly changed to a much younger demographic?

[Jim_Campbell]

How do you know the target audience for the show has clearly changed to a much younger demographic?

Did you watch it...?

[Steve Green]

Yep but it is far worse than most other overnight figures for the show.

But... as pointed out already, the target audience for the show has clearly changed to a much younger demographic who are unlikely to watch broadcast TV. I'm not saying the numbers will be great whenever they finally get tallied up, just that if they've lost [X] million older viewers from the live broadcast but gained [X+1] million younger ones on platforms that don't register in the overnights, then we can't infer much from the overnights, other than fewer people watched the show 'live'.

This is the first one where they've premiered on streaming isn't it? If so, you've got that factor too - some staying up until midnight and not bothering with the Saturday evening live broadcast.

I've no idea what overseas will make of it - maybe here there will be a bump here for the Moffatt written episode.

I guess we'll only know way down the line - it's only an 8 episode series after all.


I don't know what deal Disney have with Who, but they were pretty brutal with Willow

[nxylas]

I don't know what deal Disney have with Who, but they were pretty brutal with Willow

Two seasons minimum, I believe.

[Steve Green]

Their seasons vary, Willow was 8 episodes, so it could be another 8 - or it could be up to 12...

[Funt Solo]

What I think of as New Who is now over two decades old. There was a big US audience - my teaching demographic (high schoolers) knew all the lore. Now if I mention Doctor Who, I get "huh?"

Anyway - best of luck to the show. It's not been my cup of tea for an age. The last time I was really into watching, it was "unlimited rice pudding".

[Steve Green]

I suppose all of these IPs run out of steam, or need a break.

Post-enterprise, Trek on TV was gone until Discovery

Star Wars doesn't seem to know what to do with itself and there's that post-Endgame exhaustion on the Marvel side.


Whether a RTD 2005-style reboot is going to work twice, or things have changed too much, who knows?

Likewise, best of luck to them