9 days. This fandom has reached peak toxicity and we're barely a week into this break between series. I can't believe i actually have to write this but i'm already so done with seeing everyone bickering about ratings so i'm hoping this can go some way to being both educational and insightful on the current "health" of Doctor Who. In short, its absolutely fine but apparently it needs spelling out for some of us.
(Chart graphic by my good friend, @AceCreepTwo)
Doctor Who's ratings have been falling. Since 2014. Because shockingly, viewing habits have changed worldwide. Doctor Who's ratings began to plummet when Peter Capaldi became the Twelfth Doctor (and it should be noted, Peter is and always will be my absolute favourite Doctor, i'm simply stating facts here). Series 8 managed to cling to the popularity drive bought about by the 50th anniversary and averaged a modest 7.3 million viewers. Then came Series 9 and something seemed to snap, causing a nosedive in viewership, bringing an average viewership of just 6.0 million. A gap year in 2016, populated only by failed spin-off Class and a festive special, didn't exactly do the show wonders so when the series returned for its tenth outing in the spring of 2017, it gained only a measly average of 5.5 million viewers and some of the lowest overnight figures since 2005. Yet, i don't recall anyone accusing Doctor Who of being in danger or rather more dramatically, dead when the ratings tanked in the latter of the Moffat years.
Skip forward a year. 2018. The new year bought with it a new era of Doctor Who and one that a rather loud minority would have you believe is "a failure, isn't canon, has killed Doctor Who" and so on. Jodie Whittaker's first series bought with it the highest average viewership since the show's revival in 2005, averaging 7.9 million viewers and the first episode being the most watched episode since 2005 with a seven day consolidated figure of a whopping 10.54 million viewers. It's safe to say that curiosity & peculiarity on how the first female Doctor would translate to screen helped bumped the numbers to their highest in a series that was....mediocre at best. 2019 gave us another gap year as filming on Series 12 began, providing only the new year's day special, Resolution.
Series 12 finally began on New Year's Day this year and it proved to be an especially unpredictable series with some huge moments, inclusion of familiar foes (The Master, The Judoon and The Cybermen) and incredible reveals in the lore of the central character. Sadly though, Series 11 simply hadn't worked for some and viewers, naturally had turned off and hadn't returned when Series 12 began with Spyfall which bought back The Master, now played by Sacha Dhawan. Much like every other series since at least 2014, the viewership dipped each week until finally, the tenth and final episode of Series 12 received a seven day consolidated figure of just 4.69 million. This is the lowest figure since the revival in 2005. It should be noted however, that overnight figures still remain generally stronger which means more people are watching live than in previous series or recording and watching later in the evening. Series 12 received an average viewership of 5.4 million, only a smidge under the average for Series 10 but down significantly from Series 11, despite being a far superior series. There is however, context to be explored.
2019 bought one episode. Just that. No spin-offs. One single episode only three weeks after Series 11 had finished and the promise of a Dalek story, the first 'classic monster' of the Whittaker & Chibnall era. Filming for Series 12 was kept tightly wrapped with little promotion of the show in the months before (though now we can understand why) and that may well have contributed somewhat to the decline in viewers. That's something the production team can choose to work on when Series 13 begins production later this year. We've already talked about this though, so lets move on. Toxicity & hatred toward the show has become rife, platforms are becoming more comfortable around hate speech, especially YouTube who seem to be actively allowing it more and more. Again we've talked about this before but its worth a mention here. If you haven't given it a read already, please consider doing so.
Here's the thing though, ratings simply are not everything and don't let anyone fool you into thinking they are. Doctor Who doesn't rely on high ratings as a measure of success. They play a part, of course but they aren't the be all and end all of Doctor Who's continued recommissioning. They never were and they never will be. There's international distribution deals in place, such as the deal with upcoming streaming service HBO Max which confirmed it has the rights to Series 12 through Series 15 to exclusively stream, confirming the show is recommissioned for AT LEAST another three series and will likely continue to be recommissioned as and when deals develop which is usually on a biyearly basis. Here though is the icing on the cake. Merchandise. Merchandise is essentially half the funding for Doctor Who and just about every other franchise like it. It isn't just the show anymore and everyone should be recognising this by now. Books, comics, figurines, clothing, calenders, CDs, DVD & Blu-Ray sales, new series and classic alike. Anything that is official merchandise and carries the Doctor Who branding directly contributes to the funding of the show and further merchandise releases.
Right now we've got missing episodes being animated for release by TWO teams meaning double the volume of releases (potentially), we've got several releases in 'The Collection' line per year, new series steelbook releases, not to mention the seemingly endless Big Finish audio series, brand new figures both from the new series and the classic series B&M sets and that really is the tip of the iceberg in merchandising. There's so much more.
Folks, instead of worrying and lets face it, bitching at each other on the subject of ratings and using it as a weapon to try and damage the show (which by the way, you're entirely failing at), lets at least acknowledge that ratings are just one slice of a big cake. Its great if you get the biggest piece, but getting any is better than nothing. That's probably a bad metaphor but you get the point. Doctor Who isn't in any danger. It's still popular, it's still getting respectable viewing figures and it's still selling merchandise across the board and its selling very well.
Doctor Who is alive and its just as healthy as ever.
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