‘Doctor Who’ season 7, ‘Orphan Black’ score for BBC America

BBC America has quite a thing going for it now on Saturday nights. While few other networks out there even choose to program what is often a time in which people go out and do other things, this particular slice of cable is actually following the British tradition, as many of their popular programs actually air on Saturdays as a bit of a family event.

Overall, the return of “Doctor Who” season 7, now featuring Jenna-Louise Coleman in a regular capacity, ended up drawing a grand total of 1.5 million total viewers for its primetime airing, which makes this the second-most-watched hour of programming in the network’s history. What was #1? The premiere of “Doctor Who” season 7 from last fall. Considering that spring can be a tough environment, and there was some sports competition on, the network has to be rather thrilled with the result here.

Meanwhile, the new series “Orphan Black” also debuted to a respectable 684,000 viewers, and ended up drawing a million on the night. Since this is a series that is brand-new, the network is surely well aware that it may take some time to build up a viewership. The good news? It’s fresh and rather fantastic, and hopefully more and more people will take advantage of the opportunity to check it out in the weeks ahead. (This is turning out to be a rather crowded spring for great original programming, no?)

We’ll be checking back on some of these numbers through the rest of the spring season (especially with “Orphan Black,” since we all know that “Doctor Who” isn’t going anywhere).

Just in case you haven’t heard the latest news on the upcoming “Doctor Who” 50th anniversary special, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: BBC America