Should You Be Worried About Series 9’s Ratings?

Katie Gribble is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

So we’re half way through the latest series and some of the overnight and final ratings have not been particularly encouraging. Should we as fans be concerned about the dropping ratings or is it nothing to worry about?

Below are the Series 9 ratings and AI for the episodes aired so far.

The Magician’s Apprentice 4.58m (overnight) 6.54m (final) AI 84
The Witch’s Familiar 3.7m (overnight) 5.71m (final) AI 83


Under the Lake 3.7m (overnight) 5.63m (final) AI 84


Before the Flood 4.38m (overnight) 6.05m (final) AI 83


The Girl Who Died 4.85m (overnight) 6.56m (final) AI 82


The Woman Who Lived 4.34m (overnight) TBC (final) AI 81

The Appreciation Index or AI is a measure of how much the audience enjoyed the programme. The score, out of a hundred, is compiled by a specially selected panel of around 5,000 people who go online and rate and comment on programmes.

While the appreciation figures for each episode has been high, as I think they deserve to be, the numbers watching the episode as it airs are quite low. None of these figures take overseas or online consumers into account so there is the opportunity for episodes viewing ratings to rise significantly. However, the initial figures are certainly a cause for concern with articles from BBC News actively reporting a severe drop in audience numbers.

The Doctor has already been confirmed to return to our screens in another series, but there is certainly doubt that the series is maintaining interest. However, with it’s massive popularity worldwide, I don’t see how the BBC could afford to simply abandon it.

Do you think Doctor Who is at risk of cancellation? What would we all watch on Saturday evenings?

 

The post Should You Be Worried About Series 9’s Ratings? appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.