Tabloid newspapers – predictable as ever
Yesterday ATV Today predicted tabloids would be running stories about “falling ratings” for Doctor Who and sure enough they have.
Saturday’s episode of The God Complex, the 11th episode of the current series of Doctor Who, was watched by 5.2 million viewers according to overnight figures. Overnight figures are regularly reported upon by the press but they don’t tell the whole story – in fact simply put they don’t even give you all the ratings for a programme.
The overnight figures only give a snapshot really of how many people watched the programmes. That’s because the final ratings figures – funnily enough not so widely used by the lazy press – take into account the actual broadcast time of a programme (not just the time its scheduled to start/finish) and those who recorded the programme and watched within seven days – but crucially not downloads via on-demand platforms such as the iPlayer. So final figures always add significant amounts of viewers onto the “overnight” figures but you’d be hard pressed to find a newspaper that correct itself about “declining ratings” when the final ratings are released.
Anyway as The God Complex was beaten by All Star Family Fortunes on Saturday evening – by a whisker- we predicted that the tabloids would pounce upon this small victory (which final figures will wash away) and proclaim declining ratings because of “complicated plots”. This is what we wrote “Therefore expect some dodgy tabloid headlines over the next few days about declining ratings”. Well sure enough The Sun has had a headline “Fans switch off Doctor Who” followed by “DOCTOR Who was defeated in the ratings battle on Saturday night — as fans complain the storylines have become too complicated”
Hmmm predictable and Saturday evening’s episode was hardly complicated to follow it was just scarier than your average episode which is perhaps why the ratings were lower – parents will have recorded it to see if its suitable/will download via the iPlayer once they think its suitable. Which means in ten days time when the final figures are released and Doctor Who adds shed more viewers it won’t have been beaten by All Star Family Fortunes at all.
You can read a review of The God Complex here >>
