Doctor Who fails to top ratings
- Publication: The Sunday Times
- Date: 2009-12-27
- Author: Richard Brooks
- Page: sec. 1, p. 8
- Language: English
THE great British tradition of slumping in front of the television on Christmas evening seems to have lost its allure. This year's most hyped programme for December 25, David Tennant's penultimate appearance as Doctor Who, attracted just 10m viewers, Lam fewer than last Christmas's Doctor Who instalment. Even the most-watched programme, EastEnders, had only 10.9m viewers. In 2008, by contrast, A Matter of Loaf and Death, the Wallace and Gromit Christmas special on BBC1, drew an audience of 14m.
The increasing time that Britons spend in front of computer screens — whether playing games, surfing the Internet or shopping online appears to be cutting into television viewing.
Despite the fall in overall viewers, the BBC, as usual, outperformed ay on Christmas Day. ITV1 had one programme, Coronation Street, in the top to on December 25, with just under 8m viewers.
The much-heralded and hyped death of Doctor who will mark the end of Tennant's incarnation as the Doctor. There is one final episode with Tennant on New Year's Day, when he will be regenerated into the new Doctor Who, to be played by Matt Smith.
The BBC will be disappointed with the audience ratings for its Christmas Day programme, which featured a battle with the doctor's historic enemy, the Master.
Doctor Who was beaten into third place by The Boyle Family, which drew 10.2m viewers, and by EastEnders, which was seen by far fewer people than expected. The BBC had hoped that the murder of the character Archie Mitchell, played by Larry Lamb, would draw a larger audience.
The Queen's Christmas message, on both BBC and IIV, was watched by 8.1m people, down from 8.2m last year.
None of the figures takes into account viewing on BBC iPlayer or ITV Player.
ITV1 won the biggest audiences for the whole of 2009 with the final of Britain's Got Talent in May. This attracted an average of 18.3m viewers, peaking at 19.2m. The final of The X Factor on December 13 averaged 15.5m viewers, with 'a peak of 19.1m.
The third most popular programme of the year was an episode of EastEnders on April 2, which had an average audience of 11.5m. The top drama of the year was a Doc Martin on ITV in early November, which had 10.2m viewers.
The audience for lot weekend's Strictly Come Dancing on BBC1 was down by 3m on 2008, when it had 12m viewers.
Caption: David Tennant in the Christmas Doctor Who adventure, which had 1.4m fewer viewers than last year's
Christmas viewing figures
Overall top 10 shows on Christmas Da
EastEnders 10.9m
The Royle Family 10.2m
Doctor Who l0m
Gavin & Stacey 9.2m
The Gruffalo 8.8m
Coronation Street (ITV) 7.9m
Catherine Tate 7.1m
BBC News 6.8m
Strictly Come Dancing 6.8m
The Queen 5.6m
All shows on BBC except where stated
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: Brooks, Richard (2009-12-27). Doctor Who fails to top ratings. The Sunday Times p. sec. 1, p. 8.
- MLA 7th ed.: Brooks, Richard. "Doctor Who fails to top ratings." The Sunday Times [add city] 2009-12-27, sec. 1, p. 8. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Brooks, Richard. "Doctor Who fails to top ratings." The Sunday Times, edition, sec., 2009-12-27
- Turabian: Brooks, Richard. "Doctor Who fails to top ratings." The Sunday Times, 2009-12-27, section, sec. 1, p. 8 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Doctor Who fails to top ratings | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Who_fails_to_top_ratings | work=The Sunday Times | pages=sec. 1, p. 8 | date=2009-12-27 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=31 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Doctor Who fails to top ratings | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Doctor_Who_fails_to_top_ratings | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=31 March 2025}}</ref>
