The full ratings are in for the third and final 60th anniversary special and more than 750,000 people dropped the show from the first special to the third one.
David Tennant as the 14th Doctor in Wild Blue Yonder (2023), BBC
Doctor Who Guide reports that the first special “The Star Beast” saw viewership at 7.61 million.
Viewership declined to 7.14 million with “Wild Blue Yonder.” That was a drop of a little less than half a million people. Percentage wise it was just over a 6% drop.
The third episode, “The Giggle” saw its overall viewership decline to 6.85 million viewers. That’s a total decline of 760,000 individuals from “The Star Beast.” Percentage wise it’s just shy of a 10% decline.
The third episode declined a little less than 300,000 people from “Wild Blue Yonder.” It declined by a little over 4%.
Neil Patrick Harris as The Toymaker in Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special “The Giggle” (2023), BBC
The overall declines mirror the overnight ratings that had previously been released. “The Star Beast had an overnight rating of 5.08 million viewers. “Wild Blue Yonder’s” overnight ratings clocked in at 4.83 million and “The Giggle’s” overnight ratings were 4.62 million.
The overnight ratings declined 5% from the first to the second episode. It declined over 9% from the first to the third. And the decline from the second to the third was over 4%.
David Tennant as the 14th Doctor in Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special “The Giggle” (2023), BBC
If you compare these ratings to the most recent incarnation of Doctor Who starring Jodie Whittaker as a gender-swapped Doctor, they look really good, at least if just looking at the fall off. Whittaker’s Who still had much higher viewership its first three episodes.
The first episode, “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” had overall ratings of 10.96 million. It declined to 9 million by the second episode “The Ghost Monument.” The show lost nearly 2 million viewers in just one episode. It was a decline of nearly 18%.
The third episode, “Rosa” had viewership of 8.41 million. That’s a decline of over 1.5 million from the second episode. It’s a drop of 6.5%.
The overall decline from the first episode to the third episode was over 2.5 million. That was just shy of a 25% drop.
David Tennant as the 14th Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble in Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special 2 “Wild Blue Yonder”(2023), BBC
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It would take Whittaker’s Doctor Who 6 episodes to decline to the levels of “The Star Beast.” “Demons of The Punjab” was only viewed by 7.48 million people when it debuted in November 2018.
To get to the viewership level of “The Giggle,” it took nine episodes. “It Takes You Away” saw viewership at 6.42 million.
Of note, Whittaker’s Doctor Who declined every single episode until the 11th episode, which was a New Year’s special. It only brought in 7.13 million viewers.
Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor in Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Special “The Giggle” (2023), BBC
These ratings are for viewership in the United Kingdom and do not include viewership in the United States. Viewership data for Doctor Who on Disney+ has not been released, but the show has not charted on Samba TV’s Top streaming programs chart for any of the weeks that the three specials debuted.
For the week of November 20th to November 26th, which saw the release of “The Star Beast,” it was best by everything from Squid Game: The Challenge Season 1 on Netflix to Paramount+’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves to Monarch: Legacy of Monster’s Season 1 on Apple TV+.
The #SambaTVWeeklyWrap is here! #Netflix dominates the top 4 with #LeoOnNetflix, #SquidGameTheChallenge, #BestChristmasEver, and #thecrown6. Rounding out the top 5 is #Paramount+’s #LawmenBassReeves.
In the back half of the top 10, we see #Peacock‘s #Genie movie,… pic.twitter.com/UpJo9EHAYP
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) December 1, 2023
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“Wild Blue Yonder” similarly did not chart on Samba TV for the week of December 4th through December 10th. It was beat by a number of Netflix films and TV shows such as Family Switch, Leave the World Behind, Leo, and Hunter Killer.
The #SambaTVWeeklyWrap is here!
No surprise that #LeaveTheWorldBehind took #1 this week, but the rest of the mostly #Netflix top 5 was a mixed bag.
Coming in at #2, #TheSuperMarioBrosMovie scored high viewership following its Netflix debut, #FamilySwitch continued to draw in… pic.twitter.com/D5FtIMpw5q
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) December 15, 2023
“The Giggle” also did not chart. It was best by Candy Cane Lane on Prime Video, The Great British Baking Show Season 11 on Netflix, and Lawmen: Bass Reeves on Paramount+.
The #SambaTVWeeklyWrap is here!
We’re starting to see more holiday flicks enter into the top 10, including #AmazonPrimeVideo‘s breakthrough as number 1 this week with the #EddieMurphy-led #CandyCaneLane. The less warm-and-fuzzy #SquidGameTheChallenge takes 2nd, the now… pic.twitter.com/GXe9bEuqKb
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) December 8, 2023
Data from Nielsen will be released this week for “The Star Beast” and we’ll get an even better picture of how the show performed in the United States on Disney+.
The Doctor (David Tennant) in Doctor Who Special One: The Star Beast
What do you make of Doctor Who’s audience fall off through three weeks? What do you expect for the show moving forward?
