With new ratings reports out for both Star Wars: The Acolyte and Doctor Who showing that viewers are massively tuning out of woke replacement content of established brands, studios are scrambling to come up with a new narrative to somehow paint these travesties as successes. The BBC is making incredible excuses for Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor Who performance, pointing to a percentage of views from a "younger demographic" as evidence of success, even though the numbers are the lowest in history.
This season of Doctor Who posts 8 of the 10 lowest-rated episodes in the show's history, a new low for Russell T. Davies and his heavy identity politics-infused writing. He warned in multiple interviews prior to the show that this season would upset fans, that it would veer away from its science fiction roots in favor of fantasy, and that the show would lean heavily into extreme left-wing politics and gender identity, something the fans have been vocally saying they don't want.
Doctor Who hit its all-time low with Episode 5 of this season, with 3.38 million viewers overall. Even with these dismal numbers, the BBC and its access media allies are trying to spin this as a success.
Originally, the BBC claimed the low numbers were due to overnight ratings not reflecting the true viewership. They said most people were watching on iPlayer, and the ratings would show a different story once the full numbers came out. Once they did, however, it showed exactly what fans thought—no one is watching Ncuti Gatwa Doctor Who.
A BBC spokesperson recently tried to spin this information by talking about the younger demographic they're supposedly going for, saying, "Doctor Who remains one of the most-watched programmes on iPlayer and is the BBC's top drama for under-35s this year, making it one of the biggest programmes for the demographic across all streamers and broadcasters."
However, it's a misrepresentation of the facts to claim success here. Just because a higher percentage of the viewership is of the younger demographic doesn't mean there are more viewers. With a lower overall viewership, the percentage could look better without seeing any increase in demographic viewership. BBC, however, doesn't provide the breakdown, only their spin.
Russell T. Davies admitted at the BAFTA Awards the show is "not doing well" and said that season 3 is up in the air in terms of whether it might get renewed or not.
Even still, the Radio Times is going out with a full propaganda piece, declaring victory for Russell T. Davies and Doctor Who with an article titled, "Doctor Who's ratings are a success for Russell T Davies in a way that's crucial to its future."
In this, the Radio Times also gives no hard data but repeats the BBC and Russell T. Davies' prior talking points about this magical younger demographic. They focus bizarrely on an under-16 audience, which is insane given the show's blatant push of sexualized themes for LGBTQ fetishes. It seems the show is aimed at grooming kids, and perhaps they have the few that are watching, but overall, Doctor Who cannot be considered a success. This level of viewership does not justify their budget, and the producers are in full spin mode, trying to save their jobs.
There's a write up on IGN which is a masterpiece in unintentional comedy. "Ncuti Gatwa's First Season as the Doctor Finally Made the Show Good Again!" Indeed.
I chose not to watch the new Doctor because of it being only shown on Disney+. It now appears that I haven't missed much at all, though I really wanted to see the return of David Tennant. Oh Well. I've got lots of DVD's of older, better shows to rewatch. fortunately.