Spicing up the Doctor Who franchise with the iconic series' very first female Time Lord might have given BBC's pretty big ratings boost, but it looks like viewers weren't as responsive to other changes made to the long-running science fiction series.
Making a few more other tweaks to the franchise, the team behind Doctor Who decided to skip out on the series' traditional Christmas Day Special, moving the episode to a New Year's Day airing. Unfortunately, not as many viewers showed up to watch the New Year's Day Special.
The Hollywood Reporter has the latest details about Doctor Who's most recent special episode and according to the publication, only 5.15 million overnight viewers in the UK watched the New Year's Eve Special "Doctor Who: Resolution."
Though this number doesn't include viewers who tuned in late, it still is kind of low, especially for a Doctor Who special. Peter Capaldi's first Christmas Day special as the 12th Time Lord of the franchise managed to rake in close to 7 million overnight views. Matt Smith's first Christmas Day special earned over 10.3 million views.
The numbers were also much lower in comparison to the return of Idris Elba's Luther series which aired the very same night, amounting to half less than the series episode.
Of course, the viewer ratings barely comes as a surprise. Fans aren't used to the change in time slot, especially after all the years that they've had a Doctor Who Christmas Special.
Doctor Who season 12 premieres sometime this year.
Read: Doctor Who Just Took Out Another Major Element In The Classic Series
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!
Fandoms