S14 Ratings - Mid-Point Update

Figures are now available for the first half of the latest series (as well as the overnights for Dot and Bubble) so it would seem an opportune time to catch-up with how S14 is faring. 

Unfortunately, last week's episode obtained the second lowest score for the new series so far, the "Boom-bounce" having proven unsustainable. A half million viewers were lost in a week, but then we had a move in the opposite direction just the week before. 

The +7 figures seem to be consistent, at around 1.5 million additional views up on the overnights.

Series 11 and 12 each saw a steady week on week decline, so we are actually getting consistency this year. Not huge numbers, but consistent.

The audience share figure, which everyone agrees to be far more important, has remained healthy (10th, 12th, 18th, 12th for the week across all channels).

However, in the new Disney+ era of the show, the viewing figures do matter - and anyone who claims otherwise is mistaken. 

Disney are now putting money into the show and, unlike a public broadcaster like the BBC, the House of Mouse is a purely commercial concern. They want two things for their money - new subscribers to their streaming service, and advertising revenue. They will not invest money in something which fails to deliver on these two things. Audience share won't matter to them as much as individual bums on seats (ideally new ones).

Unfortunately, Disney don't like to release their viewing figures, and have a habit of suppressing low numbers. (They will crow about successes, however). We won't have any idea of how the programme is doing on the streaming platform for a while, especially in the all important American market.

One figure I would really like to see is the AI one - the appreciation index which shows how much viewers actually enjoyed the episode. The last figure we were given was a very good 82 for the last Christmas Special, but we haven't seen anything for S14 yet. 

The AI figures would really show how popular the series is in a direct comparison to earlier seasons. Whereas overnight and 7+ day scores can often be like comparing apples to bananas as viewing patterns evolve, the method of measuring audience appreciation has remained relatively consistent over the years.