Doctor Who not necessarily getting five-season renewal, despite big deal

Over the past 24 hours, there’s a lot of information out there suggesting that Doctor Who has been effective granted a five-season renewal. Is that the case? It’d be tremendously exciting if it was, but matters are a tad more complicated than this initial statement indicates.

Here’s where the talk about the show getting renewed through season 16 is coming from. This week, the BBC signed an important Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese media company, Shanghai Media Group Pictures. This will help to expand the Doctor Who brand in China, and offer BBC Worldwide more opportunities to promote and market the show in the country. This deal covers the show potential through season 15, and also retroactively covers the entire catalog of Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat as showrunners.

This deal cannot be undersold in its importance, despite said importance not exactly being what many people first assumed that it would be. The big differentiating factor here is that Doctor Who in China is not going to mean that the show is around that long, but this means that in the event that it is, there is no need to re-negotiate overseas … not that the BBC would want to, given that this deal could be a significant asset in getting the show back for additional seasons.

One thing that cannot be undersold at this point is the immense population that is within China. Think of things this way: Britain has a total population of around 65 million. Meanwhile, China has a total population of over 1.3 billion. Even if just a million or two of those people find the show who didn’t before and become hooked on it, that could help to boost the show’s popularity tremendously. Chinese viewership has shown to be a significant asset already to some other shows on the air such as Sherlock.

Ultimately, don’t count your chickens before they hatch when it comes to the potential of getting more Doctor Who on the air. Yet, at the same exact time, consider this a further reminder that this is a show with the potential of being one of the biggest and boldest franchises on TV, even more so than it already is.

A new episode of Doctor Who will air on BBC One this weekend. In the event you do have an interest in previewing that, be sure to head over to the link here right now. (Photo: BBC.)