Doctor Who and the Ratings
From CroziervisionWiki
I have recently, for no particularly good reason, been perusing the ratings for Doctor Who over the years thanks to those wonderful people at Outpost Gallifrey who have the figures for every episode ever broadcast. Actually, it's gone a bit further than that. I compiled a spreadsheet. And then created a few charts all of which I hope to upload at some point.
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Some caveats
For all sorts of reasons ratings are not strictly speaking comparable:
- the population of Britain has slightly increased over the last 40 or so years, from about 55m to nearer 60m today (I think)
- the means of generating the viewing figues are also likely to have changed. One of the things I found odd was that in the early days figures were always either X.4 or X.9. Not anymore, they're not.
- people have a lot more choice these days. In November 1963 there were only two channels. There are now five terrestrial channels and hundreds of channels available by cable or satellite.
- in 1963 there were no videos. Pity given what the BBC did to its own copies
- the TV market (I guess) was continuing to grow in the 1960s. It wasn't until the 1970s that just about every household had a telly
- the huge figures for some of the serials in the late 1970s should be taken with a pinch of salt as ITV were on strike at the time
- ratings are no longer the sole measure of success. Export potential and DVD sales also have to be factored in
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Conclusions and Observations
I hope to add the supporting evidence at some stage:
- they made a lot more episodes in the 1960s
- Hartnell had both the highs and the lows
- The Daleks were wildly popular. At least initially. By the 70s they were no longer such great ratings grabbers
- The Troughton era (though one of my favourites) was one of the least successful. However:
- it did a lot better than the last days of the Hartnell era
- its figures were (until the last three or four serials) extremely consistent
- Doctor Who continued to add viewers throughout the 1970s. All those colour tellies, perhaps?
- Doctor Who was doing just fine until Colin Baker's second season. And then it was put on ice for 18 months. Sounds awfully like malice
- Long serials eg War Games, Inferno, Evil of the Daleks, don't work. They ship viewers
- Tom Baker's last season was one of the least successful ever (the one prior to that had been the most successful ever)
- If the fans like it (think War Games, Inferno, Caves of Androzani, Empty Child), the viewers don't. The effect seems to work the other way around too. The Web Planet (dire, apparently) was one of the most successful serials ever
- The 2005 series was losing its audience. Perhaps they should think about introducing a plot or two next time round
