TV land is living in interesting times. As rumours begin to gather pace about a possible comeback for Frank Spencer, it appears that flagship series Doctor Who is falling out of favour with audiences. Recent audience figures have dipped to 4 million.
The Mirror is reporting “Worried BBC chiefs are considering scrapping next year’s series of Doctor Who and screening feature-length specials instead. Read the full article here.
In fairness the last two weeks Saturday has been a real battle with two big Rugby World Cup matches throwing their hat into the ring in the battle for TV audiences. The trouble with Doctor Who is it is caught in a massive battle for Saturday night ratings against the big guns X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. Desperate to keep the lion’s share of the audience the Doctor finds himself materialising around the 8.00pm timeslot sometimes before sometimes after. Doctor Who belongs in a Saturday teatime slot where it started, by the time it’s on it’s mainstream viewers have possibly gone out. It should be a longer series but back to 25 minute episodes in a teatime slot. It would be a shame to see it cancelled again. With England out of Rugby’s World Cup lets see how the audience figures react before panicing at press reports.