The Ratings Game

(Just how insane is that image above...?).
No doubt you have read of the doom and gloom of the overnight viewing figures for The Magician's Apprentice, followed by what looks like a shocking 3.7 million UK viewers for The Witch's Familiar.
Well, fear not. Those of you who do reside in the UK, especially the south east corner, will know that the weather has taken an unseasonable turn for the better, so folk have been out and about the last two Saturdays. The first episode did not have Strictly to draw people to BBC1. I suspect a lot of people watched The X-Factor just to see why its ratings have also been so poor. The second episode was up against a live Rugby World Cup match featuring the host nation - England. (This Scotsman is still sniggering...).
The final figures are now in for the first episode. If you add the overnights to the catch-up figures, then factor in the BBC3 repeats, and finally consider the i-Player viewers, you get a total to date of 8.8 million. Perfectly acceptable. It makes the episode the 5th most-watched BBC show of the week - and there is another series of the incomprehensibly popular Bake Off show on at the moment, as well as a murder trial in Walford.
Not sure how much the feature-length repeat of the two Dalek / Davros / Missy episodes on Sunday will fare, as the weather was once again very good for the time of year.
We are also hearing of record viewing figures for BBC America and elsewhere.
Every year the papers prophesy the death of the Doctor. Overnight figures are simply meaningless in this day and age.
Doctor Who continues to have a massive following. We just don't do the Saturday evening event thing so much anymore.