DW S4...interesting ratings development

[rabid1st]

You all know how I tend to relate everything to Rose and her possible appearance in the series? The ratings go up when there is a good chance of seeing her and down when she isn't there for a bit. The only episode that failed to follow that pattern was The Unicorn and the Wasp, which went way up for some reason.

This week we have what could be an alarming drop given the news about Moffat...5.4. I think that is the lowest rating ever for New Who. Making this the second time this season we have bottomed out on the ratings.

My prediction of 4.0 when David leaves seems even more likely now, doesn't it?

Rae

Comments

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

To quote Outpost Gallifrey:

Silence in the Library was watched by 5.4 million viewers, giving it a 25.4% share of the total television audience.

Britain's Got Talent got 11 million viewers for the main show, with the results programme getting a massive 13.1 million. Doctor Who was only the 5th most watched programme for the day and the second highest rated programme on BBC1. For the first time since the series returned in 2005, the programme did not win its timeslot.

Which seems the most relevant part to me (I think TUatW got a boost from being about Agatha Christie).

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

It could have. See? I think people were excited about the news of Rose coming back and her appearing in the first episode gave the second one a kick. But people pretty well voted no on Martha again in Poison Sky. Then, we have another glimpse of Rose and an episode called "The Doctor's Daughter" and they get another Rose boost. But it ran out last week on them...and I think they are voting for LESS scary, traumatic stuff, too.

Moffat has a reputation for keeping the kids up all night with the shivering terrors. And while I didn't find his library story all that scary. The more I thought back to being a kid...well...I would have had a bad reaction to the skeleton in the suit and people talking after they died...and the dark. So...yeah, I can see parents just passing on this.

And I can see the hopeful, faithful fading in any case but definitely if we don't get a happy with Rose ending for Ten. Honestly, I do think the show won't last more than another season or two after David leaves unless something not just hopeful but singingly uplifting happens going into this long break.

Rae

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- interesting thing I noticed about Moffat's episodes when I looked through the ratings is that he's been lower than both episodes around him in both S2 and S3. In S2, when he did GitF, that episode did a 7.9 while School Reunion hit 8.3 and Rise of the Cybermen was 9.2. Again, in S3, Moffat's Blink got 6.62 million while Family of Blood got 7.21 and Utopia got 7.84 (I couldn't find the information on S1, though, beyond reading that Rose got 10.81).

It does make me curious about what the numbers will be for him next week and what they'll be for RTD's Midnight (in contrast to Moffat, RTD tends to do better than the episode before him and he also improves on those numbers when he does several in a row). The numbers went up for Gridlock and then went back down the next week. In S3, no other writer's episode got ratings as high as RTD's lowest number. He's the only one who knocked it over 8 million in series three.

And I see what you mean about Martha! From 7.06 in TSS to 6.53 in TPS.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Midnight will go up...but not as far up as when Rose comes back. We should actually start to see a rise as the press begins to pick up after next week.

Martha wasn't doing it for anybody unless RTD was writing. RTD is the one that does it...yes...and I think that's because he's brilliant...and a Rose/Doctor shipper.

Rae

[fidesangelus.livejournal.com]

Its very interesting but kind of sad to me as well considering I really, really had fun watching this week's episode.

[togetheragain21.livejournal.com]

I don't know about you but I think a lot of the ratings being up and down has more to do with the BBC'S constant rescheduling and changing the times that they show Doctor who.I mean on one week it will be shown at 6.20pm,the next 7.00pm,then back to 6.20pm and so on which they have done since season 4 first aired.

Now that the show I'd Do Anything has finished perhaps the BBC will keep it at the favoured 7pm time that proved sucessful for Doctor who last year.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I think that the change in time slot definitely doen't help. But it wouldn't account for this kind of drop. And this time it was on at 7:00 just like last week. I actually do think that all of those people tuned in last week and saw there was no Rose. Then, they saw the preview for this week...no Rose again...and just decided to wait until she was announced.

This is the problem with all of the old school reasoning about the show always going on and being an institution. The show was cancelled for low ratings. And it had been on life support for a while when that happened. AND...most importantly, it had no competition back then. Today, there is competition and if Doctor Who goes back to being nothing more than a scary adventure story in space...the ratings are going to reflect the pointlessness of watching it every week.

Right now, they have about 2 million diehard David Tennant fans to their credit. Pull those numbers out of the equation and you have a very gloomy picture, indeed.

Two years ago...I faced a lot of fire from the fanbase when I said that the smartest thing they could do was wrap up the Doctor/Rose love story in Season 3 and retire the show for a couple of years. Then bring it back with a new Doctor and a new head writer. I do think they have taken the same look at the numbers that I have and this "break year" is part of that.

If they send Ten off to Rose for a happy life...and they do a few specials...they can increase the appetite for the Doctor again...while offering the fans the hope of something new and different happening with the character. If they try to go on soldiering as they did in Old School...they will face the same end that Old School DW faced...only much, much sooner.

Rae

[togetheragain21.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree with all this and I believe thats why they are having a gap year with only the specials before airing season 5 so they can wrap up all the lose ends and unresolved issues that need to be addressed like the Ten/Rose storyline so they can come back refreshed and in a way start anew and give it a whole new makeover.

I've actualy heard a lot of people say they stopped watching Dctor who because Rose wasn't in it which doesn't bode very well indeed.

Being a Ten/Rose shipper myself if they do this it will be the most sensible and logical solution fo all of us.Heck I wouldn't mind if the Doctor was split in two and one went with Rose for their happy ever after and the other stayed to protect the universe(probably dreaming on that score,but oh well!)


I can't speak much for old school as i'm very new to Doctor who ,well i've watched from the new series anyway.

No, it doesn't bode well...

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

...but we must no count out that RTD has created this emo-longing in the Doctor for something. He wants to live a happy, simple life. He doesn't think that he can do it...but the idea of splitting himself is one I've been toying with in other Meta posts...as you've seen. The idea of using his hand, for example, to create a new self and sharing his memories with it. Maybe Time Lords breed like single-celled organisms...what do we know?

Certainly, I think that there is a way for him to go to Rose and yet let the concept of "The Doctor" go on...being remembered is the key in a lot of the stories this year. Every story ends...but it is also remembered. Of course, that could just refer to the end of the RTD era coming up...but I think for we storytellers there is something else there...we want to live on in the tales that we share with other people. Agatha Christie manages that feat even though, as her fictional self said, she didn't write great literature.

It is about the people you touch...in writing...and in life. They remember you. The Doctor will live on in song and legend after he leaves the stage...each of his personas as well...and if he finds a way to share his memories and his code and his pain with another...then isn't that person ALSO the Doctor?

Rae

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

I see it crashing with the new season. I think that will be the end of it. I love Moffat as a writer individually, but as a Who writer, it's just not his ball of yarn. He bores too easily and pushes aside the main characters to tell a different story. Thats dandy for your own stuff, but you've got to stick with the characters you've got when writting in TV.

Lets just hand the series to you, Rae. I like your stories better.

I've been meaning to ask you, have you ever published anything?