Along with the return of Russell T Davies comes the return of the Doctor Who Christmas Special but “The Church on Ruby Road” featuring the first full appearance of Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson is more disappointment.
The ratings are the worst of the series for a Christmas Special and are on par with the worst-rated episodes of David Tennant’s career in the three previous specials from Davies.
The Doctor Who Christmas Special ratings come in at 4.73 million viewers which per below you can see is about a million viewers less than the previous lowest-rated Christmas Special episode.
Update: It’s also learned the Doctor Who Christmas Special came in third on Christmas in the U.K. behind the King’s Message (6.5 million viewers) and the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special (5.4 million). It’s also reported the Doctor Who Christmas Special had 4.5 million viewers via overnights.tv, “The U.K.’s leading provider of BARB TV ratings.”
The Ncuti Gatwa Christmas Special did get a slight bump (with the 4.73M) from the previous Special that aired a couple weeks ago featuring the bi-generation, but again, it’s not much. We can guess the small bump came from fans curious to see the new Doctor in action with his new companion.
No-show on Nielsen streaming ratings
For the first time, we also get feedback on the streaming ratings from Nielsen; however, it’s learned the first David Tennant Doctor Who special didn’t make Nielsen’s top 10 list for the week ending Nov. 26.
The first special aired Nov. 25 on Disney+, so we’ll have to see if the episode makes Nielsen’s list for the following week.
As I said before, Samba TV hasn’t released any of their Doctor Who ratings, which I am guessing means they aren’t good, and I am also guessing Disney requested they don’t release the numbers. Disney also didn’t make any big announcement about the ratings.
Where are the fans?
Regarding why the Doctor Who Christmas Special may not have done all that well, it could be that fans simply forgot the show was on as Chris Chibnall stopped airing episodes on Christmas Day.
It could also be they didn’t like the three David Tennant Specials, and of course, it’s likely because of the content. As I went over in my review, the Doctor Who Christmas Special is more about sending The Message, and Davies even takes a shot at families and Christmastime. It’s a shame, because the episode could have been really good.
People will argue it will see a bump in ratings with the 7-day numbers, but what that tells us is that families didn’t tune in to watch on Christmas Day as they did in the past and also that it’s not must-see TV. It will be interesting to see if the new Who has found a steady viewership base or if the amount of viewers will continue to drop.
I’m not alone in my thinking as the Doctor Who Specials and the Christmas Special are getting destroyed by fans over at Rotten Tomatoes.
Don’t watch it
There’s also some clown that works at the BBC telling fans to stop watching the show.
But we see per what he says, they got the Disney money so the ratings don’t matter as well as the content. We’ve seen it all happen before with Star Wars and Marvel, how’d that work out?
https://t.co/Fz7MJR22wd pic.twitter.com/75bMeO20C1
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) December 26, 2023
Doctor Who 2023 Specials ratings (overnight):
- Special 1: 5.08M
- Special 2: 4.83M
- Special 3: 4.62M
- Special 4 (Xmas): 4.73M
Doctor Who Christmas Special ratings (overnight):
- “The Christmas Invasion” (2005) – 9.8 million viewers
- “The Runaway Bride” (2006) – 8.7M
- “Voyage of the Damned” (2007) – 12.2M
- “The Next Doctor” (2008) – 11.71M
- “The End of Time” (Parts 1) – 10M
- “A Christmas Carol” (2010) – 10.3M
- “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” (2011) – 8.9M
- “The Snowmen” (2012) – 7.6M
- “The Time of the Doctor” (2013) – 8.3M
- “Last Christmas” (2014) – 6.34M
- “The Husbands of River Song” (2015) – 5.77M
- “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” (2016) – 5.68M
- “Twice Upon a Time” (2017) – 5.7M
- “The Church on Ruby Road” (2023) – 4.73M
