Editor Reports: Doctor Who Needs A Later Slot
The return of Doctor Who for a new season usually means big ratings for BBC One but two long bank holiday weekends in a row, hot weather and an early time slot have seen those overnight figures drop. So ATV Today editor Doug Lambert argues that the ever popular BBC sci-fi series needs a later slot.
Can anyone else remember a time when we’ve had two extra long bank holiday weekends in a row? Coupled with very good weather for them both? The lateness of Easter this year along with the Royal Wedding means that we’ve had five bank holidays/public holidays in the space of just two weeks and with warm weather across them both its unsurprising us Brits have headed to the great outdoors to enjoy the sun while it lasts – after all Summer will probably be a wash out!
However, one side affect of all of this has been the ratings for Doctor Who. It returned on Easter Saturday at 6pm with 6.5 million viewers – a good figure for any drama these days but noticably lower than previous season premiers. The press might like to blame the shows “complicated” or “sexed up” plots but that’s a load of rubbish. The real reason why The Impossible Astronaut and this week Day of the Moon had lower than usual ratings is the time slot – 6pm is just stupidly early. Whose stupid idea was that anyway? And whose idea was it to have Doctor Who follow Don’t Scare the Hare which is quite possibly the worst game-show this side of the century!
If you want proof the time slot is too blame look at the final figures for The Impossible Astronaut which rose by over 2.3 million viewers to 8.8 million once those who recorded the show ect were taken into account. Viewers won’t rush home to watch Doctor Who at 6pm if the weather is nice, there’s nothing else worth watching on either side of it and when they can simply watch it via the iplayer. If the show was on at 7pm though (and for the previous two episodes that would mean swapping it with So You Think You Can Dance but still wouldn’t clash with Britain’s Got Talent) how higher would the ratings have been – we think a fair bit.
Russell T. Davies argued, during his time as producer, that an early time slot would cost the show viewers – and every time it airs stupidly earlier it does just that. The BBC has a hit show in Doctor Who but must learn to schedule it right otherwise ratings drop and while repeats and the iplayer pick up those lost viewers the headlines about ratings drop by the tabloids damage the shows reputation. Just you wait until the headlines hit this week about the low ratings for Day of the Moon due to the hot weather and time-slot, and see how the tabloids spin it to be about the programme itself.
The ideal time for Doctor Who is 7pm especially now we are heading into those Summer months with (hopefully) more warm weather to come. So lets hope the BBC sit up and take notice of the low ratings and realise its the time-slot at fault and not the programme.
