Doctor Who's drop in viewership per episode is being overblown by the media

Jodie Whittaker's debut series is being the target of media exaggeration, in which it's initial blowout success in the first two episodes is unfairly being used as the bar for comparison for the rest of the series

Jodie Whittaker as the timelord in 'Doctor Who' (BBC)

by Jack Linsdell

Ever since the viewing figures for Whittaker's perfectly entertaining and decently made fifth episode have been released, the media has repeatedly pulled out overly-dramatic and exaggerated variations of "the series is doomed as no one is watching it anymore" to create their headlines. For a series already suffering under heavy scrutiny and criticism for being "too family orientated", or "to politically correct" or the best one "showing us the same old stories again" (seriously! Surely those saying that comment have watched the previous incarnations series and realised that they're telling variations of the same old stories too!), this is yet another wave of rubbish that surrounds a perfectly well made and entertaining series. 

This latest "catastrophe" for the series involves the fact that the fifth episode, 'The Tsuranaga Conundrum' pulled "only" 6.12 million overnight viewers. This is a drop of only 25% of the overnight audience for her debut episode 'The Woman That Fell to Earth'. Now, when comparing this series to Peter Capaldi's debut one too, series 8, the percentage drop in overnight audience from the debut 'Deep Breath' to the fifth one, 'Time Heist' was 27%. And, when comparing it to Capaldi's third and final season (series 10), from fifth episode 'Oxygen' retained 23% of 'The Pilot's' audience. This shows us that just doing basic maths, Whittaker's debut series is right in line with previous seasons drop in overnight views and is actually retaining more viewers than Capaldi's debut series. 

And, the 6.12 million overnight views is still mighty impressive and the comparison against Whittaker's debut episode, which was surprisingly leggier and more viewed than anyone could have predicted, at 8.2 million overnight watchers is really unfair. That debut episode was always going to have inflated viewership, as any Doctor's first episode sparks increased curiosity from general viewers anyway, and the fact that it was the first female Doctor made it even more a TV event, hence the out of this world numbers. But, despite the drop of nearly 2 million overnight viewers, the series is still outpacing Capaldi's debut and his last series by miles. For comparison, his fifth adventure in series 8 was only watched by 4.93 million people, whilst in his last series the same numbered episode only attracted 3.57 million. When running that 6.12 million figure next to those two, its clear to see that Whittaker's timelord is outpacing those that have come before her, in popularity sense. 

The fact is that people are believing that because the 6.12 million figure is a severe drop from the series opener that this proves the franchise is doomed and people are boycotting it. That is not the case and nor should it be used as a comparison. Plain and simple, the beginning of the series was almost "over-viewed" for want of a better expression and the fact that the fifth episode is attracting the same overnight audience figures as the consolidated totals of Capaldi's series starters is an amazing achievement. In truth, Whittaker's Doctor is more popular than Capaldi's and unless the series takes a severe dive from here (it won't), nothing is going to change how successful its been - at least commercially. 

So, the point to learn from here is not always believe the dramatic headlines you read in the likes of the Daily Mail, Sun or any other such British tabloid that aired this crazy story, and also to not gage a latter episode (or film for that matter) that is performing at a rate most debut ones were expected to perform at as a bad thing. The point is that when something "over-performs", you cannot expect the rest of a series to follow. If the fifth episode was still pulling in 8.2 million viewers overnight, then I would be seriously concerned. 

What's clear is that Whittaker and her 'Team TARDIS' are flying high, and higher than anyone could have expected and those select few fans that have too much time on their hands are trying to paint a picture that she has crashed and burned should be ignored. Honestly, regardless of your opinions (and you're all entitled to them), Whittaker, Chibnall and friends have made a decently-put together, solidly entertaining series of sci-fi escapism, that so happens to be making social history and breaking series records. Not bad, really.