There’s good news and bad news for the Doctor, but which news he gets depends on where he is.
“The Impossible Astronaut,” the premiere of season six of Doctor Who has managed the impressive feat of being both the highest and the lowest rated season premiere since the show relaunched in 2005. US ratings were higher than they’ve ever been, but unfortunately, in the UK, the reverse is true.
BBC America reports that the episode received the highest ratings ever for the network, with 1.3 million viewers either watching live, or watching on DVR the same day. This is up 71,000 views from the channel’s previous best, which was the premiere of season five of Doctor Who, last April. In the UK, however, the show had an average audience of 6.5 million, over two million less than the next lowest, the opener for season two, “New Earth.” The BBC notes that that figure does not include people who watched the show on DVR, but still says that the episode is still unlikely to match, let alone beat, its predecessors.
While the figures seem a little bleak, at least on the Eastern side of the Atlantic, it’s worth noting that not only was it a four-day weekend in the UK, but it was also very warm and sunny. It’s quite likely that a lot of people decided to stay out in the sun, or were simply making good use of the long weekend and good weather by taking a weekend break. It will be interesting to see exactly how the figures change when the iPlayer and DVR numbers are in. While they might not beat previous year’s viewing totals, they’ll probably be much closer.
Source: via Blastr
