Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: 2024 BAFTA Awards, BAFTA, bbc, Call the Midwife, david tennant, doctor who, Ncuti Gatwa, Whoniverse

Doctor Who Ratings Up; David Tennant, Ncuti Gatwa Conquer British TV

With the Doctor Who Christmas Special drawing huge numbers and David Tennant hosting the 2024 BAFTA Awards, the show continues to rule TV.

Viewing figures, or as the Americans like to call them, ratings, are in for the Doctor Who Christmas Special and it's good news for the series. The live TV broadcast, or overnight, got 4.73 million views, which is up from 4.62 million viewers for the first 60th Anniversary Special "The Star Beast." On top of that, the Radio Times reported that during Christmas week from December 25th to the 31st, Doctor Who was viewed on television and the BBC iPlayer over 10.1 million times.

A minimum of 4.5 million viewers on television is a healthy figure these days for any show on British television these days. Even in the US, network television shows struggle to hit those numbers, and anything above it is considered a hit these days, enough to earn a renewal. For Doctor Who, this shows that there are still many fans, including children, who want to watch the show, and making it all available in one place, the Whoniverse hub on the BBC iPlayer, helps them all flock to watch it. The Call The Midwife Christmas Special may have gotten a higher figure than the Doctor Who Christmas Special, but David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa have effectively conquered the pop culture mindscape, taking up room all over social media. The announcement that Tennant is hosting the 2023 BAFTA Awards in February has already led the UK media to declare it a must-watch event.

In the age of streaming, overnight broadcast ratings don't matter as much as they used to for British Television, especially not for Doctor Who. The series has earned the BBC over $100 million a year in foreign sales and licensing since its revival in 2005, so it was never going to be canceled. Tennant's return to pass the torch to Gatwa has created buzz for the series not seen since Matt Smith took over the show more than ten years ago. Disney+ hasn't released their viewing figures for the Specials, but those are global streaming figures, and the real test will come when the new Series One premieres in Spring. Meanwhile, for all the boring, horrible people who claim Doctor Who has "failed" because of "wokeness," they can get the 10.1 viewers in the UK alone to keep their cold, joyless hearts warm at night.

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