HD Ratings: Doctor Who in Trouble?

Doctor Who’s Friday night ratings averaged a shockingly low 2.1% – 3.1% of the core commercial demographics.

Airing on the eve of a long weekend, and without Shortland Street as a powerhouse lead-in, would have hindered its prospects.

But it still lost to TVNZ 1’s season premiere of The X Factor UK and Three’s The Project and The Graham Norton Show in all but the 18-39 demo.

Viewership was down sharply on the previous week’s season premiere in two of the key demos — 2.6% of 25-54 (vs 4.1%), 2.2% of 18-49 (vs 3.4%) — and to a lesser degree in the others: 2.1% of 18-39 (vs 2.5%) and 3.1% of household shoppers with kids (3.4%).

Four days of being OnDemand may also have contributed to this but a bigger factor would have been the one that starts with X.

The UK version started strongly, largely winning its slot across all the core demos, with averages of 2.7% – 4.2%.

It was competitive with the previous week’s MasterChef Australia and improved the slot’s HHS viewership by nearly a rating point.

X Factor also dented Norton’s appeal, beating the chat show’s opening half-hour in all the key demos except 18-39, and won its Saturday slot in the 25-54 and HHS demos (TVNZ 2’s Hotel Transylvania was tops with 18-49s and 18-39s).

7 Days’ Spring Break special celebrated the show’s 300th episode by winning the hour with averages of 2.9% – 5.6% and helped Three to win the night in all the core demos.