As you can see from the above table, the UK viewing figures for Series 14 are far from spectacular. The series actually managed to lose 0.2 million viewers in the space of an hour on its opening night...
The fact that the Eurovision Song Contest followed should have seen the audience increase instead of drop - but that annual event also suffered a massive drop of nearly 25% from the previous year. (Partly due to politics, partly because it's turned into some sort of freak show).
The above figures include those who have watched the new episodes from midnight on the Friday. It was hoped that this would significantly boost the figures, but historically viewers of the BBC i-Player only account for around 15% of the audience total.
(The decision to launch at midnight was entirely down to pleasing Disney, no matter what RTD2 claims, and I don't think it's done the programme the slightest bit of good in the UK).
Most worrying of all, episodes have traditionally picked up a lot more viewers over the following 7 days, as people get round to watching stuff they've recorded at the weekend through the week.
The third column shows that this isn't happening to any significant degree this year.
The other obvious thing to note is the steady drop in the overnights. Word of mouth on Boom has been positive - but will that translate into people who haven't caught it yet deciding to give it a go, or have the first two, rather atypical, episodes put people off?
The good news is that audience share remains high, and the first two instalments managed 10th and 12th places for the week across all channels, beating some soap opera episodes.
We also don't know what the international situation is. It's in the Top 10 (just) on the Disney+ Most Watched list at the moment, as you can see below.
It's somewhat worrying that old episodes of series they don't even make any more are higher...
Individual figures don't mean a lot these days, as viewing patterns have changed so much. We also have to consider other factors such as how late in the year the series has started (it really ought to have launched soon after Christmas, as the weather in Britain the last two weekends has been hot and sunny - even in Scotland).
The most important thing to watch is how the viewing figures change over time. (Finales always do well, but what will episodes 4 - 7 look like?).
When he launched the series in 2005, RTD held Dalek in reserve as a "tent-pole" episode. If the series flagged after the opening episodes, the return of the Daleks would give the show a mid-season boost. I'm not sure he has anything like that in his arsenal this time round.
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