The figure fell below 2 million for the first time ever, despite a warm reception from fans.
The second episode of Doctor Who's 15th season suffered a fairly substantial drop in ratings – with just 1.58 million viewers tuning in to watch Lux on BBC One last night (Saturday 19th April).
That's down from the 2 million who watched last week's season premiere The Robot Revolution and marks the lowest overnight viewership ratings in the show's history, the first time ever that the figures have dipped below 2 million.
Of course, it's worth noting that these figures don't tell the whole story, given the figure doesn't take into account anyone who watched the episode on BBC iPlayer, where it debuted at 8am on Saturday prior to its BBC One broadcast.
The consolidated ratings, which include iPlayer, devices and catch-up, will be released at a later date.
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I'm not really worried, nor am I jumping on the "Doctor Who is getting cancelled" train.
The show is streaming on iPlayer and Disney+, so there is a good chance that the vaunted 25-and-below segment aren't too hung up on flow TV air dates. They can watch it anytime, and once the word of mouth about "Lux" spreads they probably will.
ETA: This update on combined over-the-air and streaming ratings for "The robot revolution" suggest just this:
The Robot Revolution’s +7 update reveals viewers are finally getting the hang of early morning iPlayer
[…]
the reveal of last week’s [viewing figures] now makes this overnight an effectively meaningless measure. In recent years, overnights had been little more than signposts signalling the general direction of the measures that matter. But if this pattern holds true, then the overnight rating will no longer give us anything like the full number of people watching the day of broadcast.
Yeah, I've never been about "ratings" posts - they're not banned from the community or anything, but they seem to mean whatever the beholder wants them to mean.
The franchise will be fine, one way or another.
Yeah, I generally agree. I thought the "lowest rating ever" part was worth posting, though. It's interesting to see how traditionally reliable metrics slide as shows turn increasingly from appointment TV to convenience streaming.
Yeah, frankly I think this says more about broadcast television than about Doctor Who. It was in fourth place for the day, with News at Ten, Casualty, and Blankety Blank above it - I think it's rather clear what the demographics are for broadcast TV.
I like this chart for comparing the current series' performance to past ones, because it relies on seeing it against the wider television landscape rather than just as abstract numbers. Doctor Who may be getting lower over-the-air ratings, but everything is - its been pretty impressively stable.
So these numbers (in the attached chart) are broadcast viewing positions — for BBC1 on the day of broadcast, or a wider comparison? Is this from a source that keeps it updated with new chart positions?
