Comments | kilodalton: Warning: maaaaaaajor geekery ahead! A closer look at Doctor Who ratings

kilodalton

Warning: maaaaaaajor geekery ahead! A closer look at Doctor Who ratings

May 09, 2013 23:18

OK so I like math. Although I'm not a statistician, I am pretty good with math (which is lucky for anyone in the USA haha bc in a few short months I will be using said math to prepare intravenous drug compounds for hospitalized patients... tl;dr if I sucked at this, it would suck WAAAY worse to be you bwahahah XD)
ANYWAY! It should not have escaped ( Read more... )

doctor who

Comments 68

giallarhorn May 10 2013, 20:39:19 UTC

I think it's hard to see if the decrease means anything, since I think that there tends to be a decrease in viewers toward the end which S7 seems to be following, but I concur that the numbers as of now are dipping lower compared to previous ones.

I think that it's more particularly worrying since we're supposed to be heading into the 50th, and while it does follow a general trend, it's definitely not a trend you want to see leading towards it. I suppose if Gaiman's ep manages to draw more viewers, it might just be indicative of just following trends, but if not, well.

kilodalton May 10 2013, 21:35:25 UTC

Yeah ... more than comparing s7 to the RTD era honestly, what concerns me a bit is comparing it to the rest of the *Moffat* era =X

Time will tell!! =D

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kilodalton May 10 2013, 22:30:40 UTC

Heya! Nope I didn't include the 2009 specials or any of the Christmas specials - all you see are the plain normal episodes (but yeah - Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End were rockstars!!)

Re average viewership - that's a little misleading in the Moffat era because you have the split seasons - premieres and finales tend to give bumps, so Moffat has a double bonus over RTD there since he's splitting the seasons. That said, RTD still comes out on top.

s1 7,947,692
s2 7,714,615
s3 7,549,231
s4 8,046,615
(Specials - I don't know lol I didn't look that up)
RTD average (without specials or Xmas specials!!!): 7,814,538

s5 7,729,000
s6 7,515,538
s7 7,618,500
Moffat average (without Xmas specials!!!): 7,621,013

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kilodalton May 11 2013, 13:50:10 UTC

Eh, I have to disagree - shows move around constantly between time slots and networks tend to keep a super close eye on that. Particularly for a money-maker like Doctor Who, they're going to be keeping a close eye on trends performance because it could be financially devastating to the BBC if it were to wane. The BBC makes a LOT of money of DW merch - more than from anything else, as of a few years ago. They probably have half the accounting department analyzing this. Plus, TPTB (see the Spilsbury article someone posted) are clearly verrrrrrrrrrry sensitive about these numbers, which means they know all about them XD

Averages are SO misleading, and everything the BBC has come out with has been so defensive - I really don't believe they're looking at the averages ...

develish1 May 11 2013, 04:33:47 UTC

do I even need to comment here? I think you must be well aware of my thoughts on the more recent seasons and how utterly unimpressed I am, right?

kilodalton May 11 2013, 13:52:34 UTC

Whaattt???? I thought you were a Moffat superfan!!!! (>.^)

( ... )

develish1 May 11 2013, 15:51:36 UTC

*points at icon and wanders of choking with laughter*

kilodalton May 11 2013, 19:05:25 UTC

Lol!!

Not a mathematician ed_rex May 11 2013, 06:33:06 UTC

I can't vouch for either your data or your methodology, but your conclusions sure as hell reinforce my critical analysis of the Moffat era programs, so I also approve this post!

If you're right (and I almost hope you are), I hope the BBC powers-that-be are paying attention and maybe thinking already about who they would like to take over a show I still hope I will be able to love again some day.

Re: Not a mathematician kilodalton May 11 2013, 13:56:58 UTC

I really have no doubt they're paying attention - they're defensive as hell about this, and you know what they say about doth-protesting-too-much XD I suspect their biggest problem right now is trying to figure out what to do about it, and in a way that spins it as positive. I have a gut feeling that Moffat will be gone not long after the Christmas Special and wouldn't be surprised to see a Christmas regeneration in more ways that one.

I love your reviews btw, they crack me up!! XD

Re: Not a mathematician ed_rex May 17 2013, 06:50:45 UTC

I guess it comes as no surprise that I hope you're right about Moffat going away. I wouldn't mind if Smith stays; might even make sense if he spent a few episodes or even a series making the transition less of a shock. But I wouldn't shed a tear if he went sooner than that either.

Also, belated thanks for your kind words; also no secret that everyone feels the way you do about my reviews!

laura_luvage May 12 2013, 23:53:46 UTC

To me there's three things that are probably the three main reasons why the show's ratings have gone down ( ... )

eve11 May 14 2013, 22:00:31 UTC

These are some good hypotheses. I've done some poking around of ratings data over at my journal if you're interested, but it does seem like we need more than just the ratings numbers to really answer the "why" questions.

Interesting point about those who age with the show and then end up doing more on Saturdays.

kilodalton May 14 2013, 22:08:09 UTC

Ehhh I'm not convinced.

1) Overall ratings for SOME things have gone down. Other shows (Broadchurch, Downton) are still very hot and pulling in nearly twice what Doctor Who is.

2) The fatal flaw with iPlayer is that it doesn't measure unique viewers. It measures TOTAL views. It's no better than YouTube. Have a connection problem and reload the video ten times? Congratulations, you are "ten viewers!" Watch most of the show on TV, but the phone rings so you miss a scene, and you go back to watch 30 seconds of the episode on iPlayer? Congratulations, you are now TWO viewers - and your 30 seconds of view time isn't differentiated from someone who watched the whole show. iPlayer stats are crap and I wish people would stop talking about them because they measure N O T H I N G >.<

Good point about people aging out of the show though ...

I wouldn't be surprised if his next season is his last. Which hopefully will mean those who haven't watched while he's been on it will start enjoying it again. I doubt there will be much of a jump in ( ... )

laura_luvage May 14 2013, 23:27:31 UTC

1) Overall ratings for SOME things have gone down. Other shows (Broadchurch, Downton) are still very hot and pulling in nearly twice what Doctor Who is.

Both Broadchurch and Downton are rare examples new must watch shows due to heightened media attention, Sherlock is another example. I would not be surprised if they go on much longer their figures will drop as well. Also not really shows that whole families will watch. A lot of other shows, including the likes of Eastenders figures have dropped. I'm pretty sure even the likes of X Factor and BGT have dropped as well. Which maybe hints that families are watching tv together less?

2) The fatal flaw with iPlayer is that it doesn't measure unique viewers. It measures TOTAL views. It's no better than YouTube. Have a connection problem and reload the video ten times? Congratulations, you are "ten viewers!" Watch most of the show on TV, but the phone rings so you miss a scene, and you go back to watch 30 seconds of the episode on iPlayer? Congratulations, you are now TWO viewers - and your ( ... )

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