Hell Bent Overnight Ratings

Andrew Reynolds 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.

Despite being the series finale, Hell Bent only gained a slight increase in overnight ratings.

4.8 million viewers tuned in to see the culmination of the Doctor and Clara’s time together placing the show fifth overall for Saturday, behind Pointless Celebrities which had 5.5 million.

Hell Bent figure was slightly inflated by the late running of Strictly Come Dancing which was top for the day with 10.5 million watching. ITV managed 7.7 million for I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! which was ahead of The X Factor which had 6.8 million viewers.

The episode had a 21.5% share of the total television audience and an AI (Audience Appreciation Index) score of 82. For those not in the know, the 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.

But ‘don’t panic!’ as the highest AI score for that day was a repeat of Dad’s Army on BBC 2 which scored 88.

So looking at the whole of Series 9, the overall picture is:

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) 6.11m (final) AI 81
The Zygon Invasion 3.87m (overnight) 5.76m (final) AI 82
The Zygon Inversion 4.13m (overnight) 6.03m (final) AI 84
Sleep No More 4.0m (overnight) 5.61m (final) AI 78
Face the Raven 4.42m (overnight) 6.05m (final) AI 84
Heaven Sent 4.51m (overnight) TBC (final) AI 80
Hell Bent 4.8m (overnight) TBC (final) AI 82

Conclusions to draw from this: well, they’re consistent which implies the core audience isn’t going anywhere. However, that decline from past heights and an apparent lack of new viewers tuning will undoubtedly be a concern to the powers that be.

Of course, new viewers need a fix air date too – preferably, if such things are available to choose, something earlier in the evening for younger viewers – if parents still believe the show is suitable for younger children, which is a whole other debate in and of itself.

In terms of the other experiment this season – the two-parter format – it’s interesting to see that the concluding part of each pair out-performed its preceding episode.

The bump in final figures is encouraging but, without any tool in place to measure how many of them are new viewers or simply fans trying to unpick each episode a second time around, it’s difficult to draw any major conclusions from it.

This and the out-performing second part might give a better impression of viewer habits; you can easily see an audience using the catch up iPlayer service to watch the first part before tuning into the concluding part – it makes you wonder why this wasn’t pushed in terms of marketing the show; perhaps in its own disingenuous and contradictory way, this would explain why the BBC were so keen to spoil everything in their official synopsis for each episode.

So now Series 9 has flown away in its own Diner shaped TARDIS what do we make of the overall ratings picture? Is there any cause for concern? Do audiences still think overnight ratings are important or do they only matted to those in charge? Is that a good thing? Do we want panicking execs? Who exactly is the core Doctor Who audience now?

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