Doctor Who’s overnight ratings are out for “Space Babies” and “The Devil’s Chord” and they mark the lowest ratings for Doctor Who episodes ever, faring far worse than even Ncuti Gatwa’s prior record low in “The Church On Ruby Road” special. This follows a press tour from Gatwa and showrunner Russell T. Davies \
The lead up press tour to Doctor Who’s “season 1” premiere has been tumultuous to say the least. The crew first revealed that the show would be a slap in the face to long-time British fans by premiering at prime time hours in the United States for the Disney+ audience and in the middle of the night for British viewers. While there were grumbles on the internet, most of the media didn’t pick up this story which marked a change in Doctor Who’s tradition, much like everything else about the show.
Russell T. Davies made it clear the show would be an ode to identity politics in his several interviews, with his now-infamous smug talking point, “If you’re not writing that [in 2024], what on Earth are you doing? I think our rights are in danger. I’m talking as someone who’s lived through gay liberation, all the way through the AIDS crisis, all the way through to the freedoms that we have now. I can see them spinning and being endangered, so there’s no choice in this. And if the most exciting and entertaining action-adventure show on television can also do that, I think that’s wonderful.”
Ncuti Gatwa gave several interviews leading up to the program, paving the way for a failure, followed by a lecture to the audience to call them bigots for not enjoying the changes in Doctor Who, a playbook no doubt taken from Disney P.R. as we’ve seen time and time again starting with the Captain Marvel movie. The interviews consisted of lecturing fans on “white mediocrity” and finally culminating in telling viewers, “Don’t watch.”
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Viewers did exactly as Ncuti Gatwa commanded them, seeming completely indifferent to both “Space Babies,” an episode that appears to be wrapped around a pro-abortion message with the entire point of it to lecture viewers on it, and “The Devil’s Chord” which featured a hard-to-watch transgender person followed by a very gay song and dance routine to end the show in the style of Glee—something that doesn’t fit Doctor Who at all.
Ratings for overnight for “Space Babies” was 2.6 million and “The Devil’s Chord” 2.4 million, marking the lowest premieres for Doctor Who ever.
As a contrast, Jody Whittaker’s first episodes of her final season, which was the prior low marker for Doctor who posted 4.43 million and 3.96 million respectively, nearly double what the Ncuti Gatwa era brought in for its beginning.
With these numbers so poor to start, audiences are wondering how low Doctor Who can go. The BBC has to be scrambling for what to do, as they’ve told Fandom Pulse they have Ncuti Gatwa contracted all the way through 2029, even though companion Millie Gibson has already signaled her exit from the show prior to these episodes airing.
What do you think of Ncuti Gatwa Doctor Who poor ratings? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Do ratings even mean anything anymore? Everyone watches on streaming now.
The show isn’t doing well on streaming either.
I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since 1969, and I was really looking forward to this new season .
I was stunned , what an absolute “car crash”, it is abysmal…I will watch the next episode and if it doesn’t improve, then I’m done with it
Colin Baker was fired for only averaging 6-7 million viewers.
🤮