TMC
12-03-2015, 02:25 AM
http://uproxx.com/tv/2015/12/doctor-who-slumping-ratings-rugby/
“I don’t want to get on anyone’s case but that wasn’t our best-run launch. This year is not a new Doctor year, it’s not an anniversary, or a new companion year,” Moffat told Radio Times (http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-12-02/steven-moffat-talks-ratings-misogyny-casting-missy-ashildrs-end-game-the-next-companion-and-leaving-doctor-who). We can just concentrate on making Doctor Who, which is quite nice in a way. But it’s dangerous when you don’t have that special extra bit to launch a show with. The way it always goes is our highest episode is the first one, but this is the first year we’ve gone up mid-season – after the rugby died down. Our ratings went up with episode five.”
As Doctor Who TV’s numbers show (http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-series-9-2015-uk-ratings-accumulator-76154.htm), Moffat’s right. After hitting quite a slump with the second and third episodes, Who rebounded. Its numbers are still somewhat low compared even to the premiere, but hey, that’s a premiere, and that brings me to Moffat’s other point. Doctor Who is a show in a very unique position, in that it has this built-in evolution that the public, particularly in the UK, really rallies around. When Peter Capaldi was chosen as the Twelfth Doctor, there was an entire television special devoted to nothing but the reveal. It’s an Event Show, and as Moffat notes, this season was one without a real “event,” apart from the departure of co-star and “Companion” Jenna Coleman. Last year, the show had the benefit of celebrating the arrival of a new Doctor in Capaldi, and the year before that it had both the departure of Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith and the much-touted 50th anniversary special that saw the return of Tenth Doctor David Tennant. Those are both hard acts to follow, particularly when the Rugby World Cup is on, but Moffat’s not worried, and I doubt we should be either.
“I don’t want to get on anyone’s case but that wasn’t our best-run launch. This year is not a new Doctor year, it’s not an anniversary, or a new companion year,” Moffat told Radio Times (http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-12-02/steven-moffat-talks-ratings-misogyny-casting-missy-ashildrs-end-game-the-next-companion-and-leaving-doctor-who). We can just concentrate on making Doctor Who, which is quite nice in a way. But it’s dangerous when you don’t have that special extra bit to launch a show with. The way it always goes is our highest episode is the first one, but this is the first year we’ve gone up mid-season – after the rugby died down. Our ratings went up with episode five.”
As Doctor Who TV’s numbers show (http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-series-9-2015-uk-ratings-accumulator-76154.htm), Moffat’s right. After hitting quite a slump with the second and third episodes, Who rebounded. Its numbers are still somewhat low compared even to the premiere, but hey, that’s a premiere, and that brings me to Moffat’s other point. Doctor Who is a show in a very unique position, in that it has this built-in evolution that the public, particularly in the UK, really rallies around. When Peter Capaldi was chosen as the Twelfth Doctor, there was an entire television special devoted to nothing but the reveal. It’s an Event Show, and as Moffat notes, this season was one without a real “event,” apart from the departure of co-star and “Companion” Jenna Coleman. Last year, the show had the benefit of celebrating the arrival of a new Doctor in Capaldi, and the year before that it had both the departure of Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith and the much-touted 50th anniversary special that saw the return of Tenth Doctor David Tennant. Those are both hard acts to follow, particularly when the Rugby World Cup is on, but Moffat’s not worried, and I doubt we should be either.