Day of the Doctor pulls in a peak of 10.5m live viewers
Saturday night saw Doctor Who fans gather in living rooms and 3D cinemas the world over for the BBC’s ultimate celebrations for the sci-fi show’s 50th anniversary.
The Day of the Doctor (BBC One, 7:45pm) saw the current Time Lord behind the wheel of the TARDIS, Matt Smith, come face to face with all of his previous incarnations – specifically David Tennent’s popular cheeky estuary chappie and a previously unknown iteration – The War Doctor – played by John Hurt.
A peak audience of 10.5 million viewers watched in feverish anticipation, soaking up the assault of cameos and references from the show’s cannon-heavy past. Overall, an average audience of 10.2 million viewers tuned in to see all thirteen doctors take a break from saving little old planet Earth, instead using the sense of occasion to come together and save their own planet of Gallifrey.
The Day Of The Doctor saw a return of kinds for popular assistant Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and was simulcast in 94 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Panama and Peru.
834 cinemas around the world also screened the episode live at 7.50pm with 1,559 in total showing the anniversary episode, helping global fans catch a shock sneak peek of Peter Capaldi.
Commenting on the viewing figures, writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat, said: “I’m astonished and moved – and that’s only the score so far, that’s just the overnights. I speak from personal experience when I say that there’s nothing better the morning after your 50th birthday than knowing you’ve still got it. Happy birthday Doctor – go get ’em you old devil!”
Charlotte Moore, controller of BBC One, said: “The 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who was a spectacular event on BBC One that really brought the nation together, cutting through time and space to simulcast in 94 countries and celebrate this great British icon.”
The numerous surprises unleashed on fans prompted them to take to Twitter, with the milestone show generating a peak of 12,939 tweets per minute, with 44 tweets for every 1,000 viewers.
There was less cause for celebration and backslapping over on BBC Three at 9pm as Zoe Ball, Rick Edwards and whoever else was randomly available came together for Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty.
Unfortunately it was more of a fizzy pop and rice crispy cake affair as musings from past and present doctors and companions were interrupted by the unexplained need to shoehorn One Direction into the proceedings.
1.3 million viewers watched as the Fourth Dimension worked tirelessly against Zoe Ball as a sound delay with the boy band on the other side of the Atlantic made for a historically painful interview, netting a 5% share and resulting in 37 tweets per 1,000 viewers.
Elsewhere in time and space, I’m a Celebrity – which netted 9.3 million viewers on Friday – fell to 8.7 million on the Doctor’s day and jumped back up to 10.3 million on Sunday evening. But it was Saturday’s edition of Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One, 6:30pm) that took the weekend’s number one spot with 10.6 million viewers – historic anniversary or not.
Which meant that the evil that once ruled the universe through its gigantic, creaky and rusty self -fulfilling publicity machine – The X Factor (ITV, 8pm) – suffered the biggest fallout from the Doctors’ alliance. Only 7.3 million viewers tuned in on Saturday night to view the 10th anniversary celebrate the only way it new how – by rehashing past glories.
An audience share of 27% watched as the kiddies of today were forced to enthusiastically perform all the classics the show has retched upon the world during its short time on this planet.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.