‘Doctor Who’ season 9 premiere ratings down; BBC America places full episode on YouTube

Is attention starting to fade in “Doctor Who“? We’re not going to say that, but we do have to suggest here that maybe more and more people are starting to watch the BBC series on their own terms … at least in the show’s home country of the United Kingdom.

As a whole, the premiere episode entitled “The Magician’s Apprentice” (read our full review for it over at the link here) drew in total 4.6 million viewers. This was the best figure for the BBC on the night and still very acceptable for this show; however, it is a significant drop of around two million from the season 8 premiere. There is obviously a major caveat that you have to consider here in that the season 8 premiere was the first to feature Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, so there was a little bit more in the way of built-in curiosity that came as a result of that.

There is some very good news that we also have for you below if you are reading this article from America: BBC America has uploaded the entire episode onto YouTube! This is something that they are doing just for the premiere, but this is the first time that the network has made a move like this with the show. It is obviously a way to entice more and more viewers to check out the series, and we do feel like it is a good one to dive into if you are a new / casual viewer. We enjoyed this episode very much, and it has a great cliffhanger that really makes you want to keep watching.

The second episode entitled “The Witch’s Familiar” will air this coming Saturday. Want to know more all about it? Then be sure to head over to the link here.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXKbqtWnvFI