‘Doctor Who’ season 8 premiere ratings up for Peter Capaldi’s debut
The ratings are in for the Great Britain launch of “Doctor Who” season 8, and BBC One has some major reasons to be happy right now.
The first episode for Peter Capaldi as the Doctor ended up being the most-watched premiere for any season in four years, as roughly 6.8 million viewers caught “Deep Breath” live. This marks over a 30% share of the TV viewing market in Britain, and gives the show great leverage for the rest of the episodes ahead.
So how does this compare to past seasons? This is 400,000 more viewers than the 6.4 million who watched the last premiere in 2012 starring Matt Smith, and also 300,000 more than the 2011 season. The first season starring Smith was in 2010, and that was watched by around 8 million viewers. Granted, that was also a very different time given that there was more of premium on watching television live at that time, given that not everyone had the access or the ability to watch via DVRs or the internet. Technology has advanced quite a bit in three years with tablets and the like.
Given that Capaldi has signed on to play the Doctor at least two years, there is no need to worry immediately about his future. Let’s just hope that the show lives up to all of our expectations and hopes along the way. We enjoyed part of the premiere, but as we said in our initial review of it, the first half of it was really bogged down by all of the constant plodding around when it came to the plot.
Another episode of “Doctor Who” will come on the air next weekend, and we will of course have some further coverage of that soon. Stay tuned! Also, you can click here in the event you want more news on all we cover transmitted right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: BBC