‘Doctor Who’ season 8, episode 2 ratings: Did ‘Into the Dalek’ come close to premiere?

You knew going into today that the “Doctor Who” ratings were most likely going to fall. After all, there was a buildup of over eight months to see “Deep Breath” and Peter Capaldi for the first substantial period of time as The Doctor, and expectations were therefore very high for the show to deliver then.

How, things can settle down a little bit, and there may be less pressure on many diehard fans to watch the show immediately. Some may choose to wait instead for Netflix, for their DVR, or for repeat airings down the road. Regardless, “Into the Dalek” scored 5.4 million viewers, a rating that was impressive, but also down 1.4 million from the season 8 premiere.

Still, you know that way more than 5.4 million people watched the show. You’ve also got the final figures from the UK coming later this week, and then you’ve got the viewers watching the show in their respective countries, coupled with all those watching either legally or illegally on the internet. Ultimately, it is far too hard to actually calculate the number of real viewers that the show receives other than saying that it is easily in the tens of millions around the globe.

The only reason we could ever see someone being worried about “Doctor Who” for is if the network decides that it may be time for the series to take a hiatus, as it has done before. We can never see the show going away completely, given that it has become such a fixture in British pop culture and also is the sort of programming that many in the country grow up watching.

If you missed it yesterday, head over here to read our full review of “Into the Dalek” right now. You can also sign up in the event you want some further TV updates transmitted right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: BBC One