BBC Director hails Series 8 as “outstanding”
The Director of BBC Television has hailed Peter Capaldi’s first series of Doctor Who as an “outstanding” triumph.
In a press release issued today, Danny Cohen added that he’s “very grateful to everyone involved” in the Twelfth Doctor’s debut adventures, which reached new levels of success at home and abroad.
Here in the UK, Series 8 attracted an average audience of 7.4 million viewers across its 12 week run, with an additional 18.9 million requests (1.6m average) on iPlayer.
“This an increase of 39% on the overnight figures reported the day after broadcast. This includes the 9.2m average audience that watched Deep Breath, Peter Capaldi’s debut episode, which is the highest figure for a non-special episode (Christmas/50th anniversary) since the opening episode of series 5 (Matt Smith’s debut) in 2010. These figures show how Doctor Who has consistently achieved big audiences across the last three series – series 7a/7b combined had an average consolidated audience of 7.4m, series 6a/6b attracted 7.5m and series 5 was viewed by 7.3m.”
Meanwhile, in the US, Deep Breath became BBC America’s highest rated series premiere to date, as Canada’s Space marked a 22% uplift in consolidated audience size on Series 7.
“We never take it for granted, but the miracle has happened again – the nation has taken a brand new Doctor to its heart.”
- Steven Moffat, Lead Writer and Executive Producer
The behind the scenes series Doctor Who Extra has had 1.3 million requests on iPlayer.
A huge congratulations to the cast and crew! We can’t wait to see what Christmas brings…
“Say something nice” (or not) about the Series 8 finale in our episode discussion!
I think it’s very sad they’re not listening to those who were far from happy, but that happens a lot with organisations that are too big to care.
I take comfort from the fact that I was able to put my opinion directly to them.
The usual “blurb” from the powers that be. I will always be a Doctor Who fan, but the spin being used to convince us this was a successful series is quite hilarious. Most of the episodes were pretty dire and I think the series was only saved by Listen, Time Heist, Flatline and the two finale episodes.
Stop the spin Mr Moffat/BBC and give us decent episodes. Maybe look further afield for new writers/ideas? I’m sure they are out there.
@David
So you’re saying that the series was saved by over a third of its episodes?
I do agree though that they need new ideas, maybe get a new head writer? Unfortunately that won’t be for season 9 as Moffat is still clinging onto those reigns as if his life depends on it (his life may depend on it to let go of those reigns with all the angry Doctor Who fans screaming after him…)
@David
So you’re saying that the series was saved by over a third of its episodes?
I do agree though that they need new ideas, maybe get a new head writer? Unfortunately that won’t be for season 9 as Moffat is still clinging onto those reigns as if his life depends on it (his life may depend on it to let go of those reigns with all the angry Doctor Who fans screaming after him…)
@MelodicHarmony Well, yes, but I’m also saying that a whopping seven, yes SEVEN lol, were dire, badly written, messy, and should never have reached the screen. Pretty damning.