Doctor Who New Year’s special pulls lowest ratings of the reboot era

It’s rough news today for Doctor Who fans, as the numbers have just come in for the latest New Year’s Day special and they’re less than stellar. The long-running British science fiction show has a history of doing specials that serve as huge events for the series, but alas, the ratings for this past weekend’s semi-annual New Year’s special were far lower than expected: only 3.4 million viewers tuned in to watch “Eve of the Daleks.” Compared to the 9 million viewers who tuned in to 2018’s special, that’s a pretty steep drop off.

This news come shortly after we’ve gotten word that Russel T. Davies, who kicked off the “revival era” of Doctor Who back in 2005, will be returning as showrunner for the upcoming season 14, which will yet again star a new actor in the lead role, although we don’t know who yet. Davies’ return is being seen partially as an attempt to save the show from the gradual ratings decline it’s seen over the past five years.

Jodie Whittaker leaving behind “viewing figures that are among the worst in the show’s long history”

It’s hard to pinpoint any one thing that’s led to the decline in Doctor Who‘s viewership, but an inside source who spoke with The Sun recently laid the blame pretty squarely at Jodie Whittaker’s feet.

“Jodie’s legacy is leaving behind viewing figures that are among the worst in the show’s long history,” the source said. “Although far more people watch programmes on catch-up, this still doesn’t make up for the decline in viewers since 2018. Plus, the BBC always saw Doctor Who as the kind of show that was ‘event TV’, bringing the whole family together at the same time. But that doesn’t seem to be happening.”

Ouch.

Now, to my eye it doesn’t quite feel right to throw the blame entirely on just the lead; after all, there are a lot of moving parts that go into any show, and any series that goes on for 13 years is going to have audience decay. But it is hard to argue with the numbers. The finale of season 12, “The Timeless Children,” drew in around 4.6 million viewers total, which makes it the least watched season finale of the entire reboot era of Doctor Who.

Again, all things being equal, that episode also happened to air right around the time that the COVID-19 pandemic started. So it seems hard to judge objectively to me.

Either way, BBC doesn’t seem too concerned. Here’s their statement on the matter:

"Doctor Who is one of the most popular shows on BBC iPlayer and has been streamed 50 million times in the past year, with 7 million streams so far for the latest series, as audiences increasingly value the option to choose when and where they watch it."

Season 13 of Doctor Who wrapped up last month. Jodie Whittaker’s final episode, the regeneration special that will introduce the next Doctor, is expected out this autumn.

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