BBC America has decided to delay broadcast of episodes six and seven ("The
Almost People" and "A Good Man Goes to War" respectively) due to expectations of
low viewership over the Memorial Day weekend. The BBC will be broadcasting
the episodes on May 28 and June 4; BBC America plans to broadcast episode six on
June 4 and Episode 7, the final episode of the semi-season, on June 11. In
its stead, BBC America has scheduled a mini-marathon of the current season's
episodes for the 28th.
Memorial Day weekend is traditionally slow for television viewership; as the
traditional first weekend of the summer, many people are engaged in outdoor
activities. TV networks usually program re-runs for the weekend, not wanting to
"waste" a new episode of their series on the smaller audience. The UK
broadcasts have been pre-empted as well on occasion, including for the
Eurovision song contest in past years, so the practice is not unheard of.
Doctor Who has greatly benefited from "time-shifted" viewership this season. The premiere episode, "The Impossible Astronaut" reportedly set the record for
the most recorded TV episode of all time, as reported by the
Doctor Who News Page. Once
corrected viewership numbers were collected, ratings for the episodes more than
doubled, from 4.11 million "live" viewers to 8.86 million once DVR users were
included. This pattern has followed through to later episodes of the
series. US ratings do not officially include DVR and other time-shifted
processes like iTunes where season 6.1 is currently #7 on their season chart as of yet, but the data on such viewing patterns is gaining interest.
Like the UK, they release "Overnight" ratings (live viewers only) and "Live Plus
Seven" totals later. BBC America has also seen increased viewership for
the show, both like and via DVR. The Impossible Astronaut drew 1.3 million
live viewers, with an additional half-million added once the DVR totals were
included.
This season is also notable for being the first time the show is being
regularly run in the US the same day as the UK broadcast. In the 80s when
PBS was the primary viewing source of he show (and a fundraising powerhouse) the
US originally got the show months behind the UK broadcasts. There were a
couple of exceptions, however, like in 1983, when the twentieth anniversary
episode The Five Doctors ran, it was shown in the US two days BEFORE it
was shown in the UK. years later, the US-Produced TV-movie starring Paul McGann
premiered here before it was shown in the UK.
The increased publicity for the show in the US has certainly been a boon for
its popularity - many members of the cast have appeared on US TV, including
The Late Late Show with
Craig Ferguson. Meredith Viera of the Today Show
visited the Doctor Who set and
filmed a tantalizing cameo for the final episode of the series, reporting on
"Holy Roman Emperor Winston Churchill returned to the Buckingham senate on his
personal mammoth." BBC America has invested in the series, listed as a
co-producer of the new season. Those extra resources allowed the series to
film in America for the first time, and make sure the budget could meet Neil
Gaiman's imagination in his episode The Doctor's Wife.
Fans have begun making their opinion known about the move - Who news sites
are running the information as "new" news, although the shift was scheduled well
ahead of time. Posts are filling the BBC America Facebook page as well.
Americans don't do "wait" well.
The question remains; exactly how much has the show benefited from the same-day broadcast schedule? With a week's delay, American fans will have
to resist temptation to read spoilers and reviews of the episodes, or even
explore the seedy underbelly of the Internet for...alternate data sources.
Will that behavior affect the US ratings more than broadcasting the episode on a
weekend so many people are away would? We shall know soon.
On the bright side, the popularity of the show has resulted in an increased
web presence as well. BBC America has been running an interactive trivia
game, Trivia
Traveler, which allows players to win prizes by visiting websites featuring
Who-related articles (including, well...modesty forbids) and finding answers to
trivia questions. And on the
official BBC Doctor Who website, under the radar entirely, an Alternate
Reality Game is running inside the episodes' pages. Click on "Episodes",
select an episode that's broadcast, and click the "Fourth Dimension" tab.
You'll see a short article with background information on the episode...but if
you pay attention, you'll notice some of the words are in italics. Reading
just those words reveals a message. In the episode for The Doctor's
Wife, the message tells you to click the last period of the article. Doing
so brings up a short distress message from The Doctor, asking for your help in
some upcoming adventure. Quite a nice little easter egg.
The BBC has also gotten The Doctor on Twitter. Follow
@DoctorWho_BBC for exclusive
info and website updates from the BBC itself. While some of the website's
videos are region blocked (you can't watch full episodes if you're not in the
UK, for example) there's a steady stream of interviews, short features and more,
all worth checking out.
