https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/tvfilm/doctor-who-series-12-ratings-low-a4382666.html

Doctor Who has slumped to its lowest ratings since the programme was revived in 2005, according to new viewing figures.

The final episode of the 12th series of the BBC's sci-fi show attracted a TV audience of just 4.6 million.

This is just below the previous all-time low of 4.7 million, which was set by an episode in 2017.

TV audiences across the latest series averaged 5.3 million.

This is also the lowest since Doctor Who was relaunched 15 years ago.

It is a stark turnaround in fortunes for the show, where ratings saw a boost when Jodie Whittaker took over the title role at the start of 2018.

Audiences had been declining before she stepped into the Tardis.

But Whittaker’s first series scored the highest average ratings for Doctor Who in nearly a decade.

Her second series, which came to an end on March 1, failed to repeat this kind of success.

This year’s series appears no fewer than six times in a top 10 of the least-watched Doctor Who episodes since 2005.

The BBC has already confirmed Jodie Whittaker will return as the Doctor in a festive special at the end of 2020, along with regular companions Tosin Cole, Bradley Walsh and Mandip Gill.

Why I think the ratings for this season of Doctor Who were low was because BBC had spent a whole lot of money and hype on this season rather than further developing the storylines for each episode. Because if you look at the general picture BBC is doing what NBC did to Law And Order by adding more interesting stuff to each episode and even added a clever idea for this season by teaming up with Hot Topic by releasing limited edition clothing two days after an Doctor Who episode aired and it was a smart move to do. But as with any Doctor Who season when a new Doctor is introduced the show is a slow starter at first but as the show season improves it slowly gets better with time. Take for instance when Matt Smith debuted on Doctor Who his season started out as a slow starter in ratings but as it improved it got better and Matt Smith has already made a household name for himself in the UK. The same exact thing happened with Peter Capaldi's and David Tennant's Doctor Who seasons and BBC made the show huge in ratings once it improved with each episode. But now that Jodie Whittaker has become a successful star on Doctor Who I think she is the main reason why Doctor Who has soared in ratings for BBC. Another reason why this season of Doctor Who suffered low ratings was because I think BBC rushed the season so it could debut after Christmas but putting the season airdate on New Year's Day was an unappealing idea
Bestie

That is a shocker because i suggest Doctor Who will not suffer back to back ratings lows quite often

I don't mind Jodie Whitaker as the Doctor but I have liked her better in other things. I think the real problem with this season has been the writing and the pace - they make the fans wait for 10 months for new episodes and then they give only a few episodes without any really interesting stories and they draw most of them out at a snail's pace, some of them were so boring I had to stop in the middle before I fell asleep.