I must admit to not knowing who she is. BUT I have heard of him. So when the assistant is more famous than the actual 'Doctor' isn't that a mistake?? He is so going to overshadow her.
Tom Baker was an unknown when cast as the Doctor, so technically he was less famous than Elisabeth Sladen, who'd been there a season longer. Did she overshadow him? Why is it a mistake? The previous work/level of fame of the cast won't have any bearing on the show itself. Jodie is well-known and respected enough to be given the prominence she deserves.
Don‘t fall into that trap to measure her publicity by your ignorance. She hasn‘t been in a major Hollywood Blockbuster yet, but she had a busy career so far. https://m.imdb.com/name/nm2092886/filmotype/actress?ref_=m_nmfm_1 I ob the other hand have no clue about Bradley Walsh, so it evens out?
Her publicity is measured by awareness, as is his. He is on TV here five days a week. She is a nobody to me.
Being the Doctor makes an actor famous. What they did before doesn't matter one bit. They'll be the Doctor forevermore. Not many of the classic Doctors were well-known before they became the Doctor. William Hartnell was fairly well-known for playing various tough Army sergeants and the like, but nobody would've anticipated him playing a character like the Doctor. The best-known actor to get cast as the Doctor in the classic series was surely Peter Davison, who was quite well-known from his role on All Creatures Great and Small. I think there was even concern in some quarters that his prior fame might work against him being accepted as the Doctor because he was so famous as a different character.
Do they show The Chase in Oz? Seems an odd choice to import a quiz show that presumably contains a lot of references to popular Brit culture.
I can't say I'm really familiar with either of them, but I had heard of Jodie, I hadn't heard off Bradley.
Whereas, as an American, I was already familiar with both of theirs work, although not the stuff that Walsh was famous for (I knew him from Law & Order: UK) and I didn't even that part of his career existed. But that's besides the point. All that matters is how each performs in the show. Any fame will be irrelevant once they become known for Doctor Who, as Christopher described.
People said that around 1978 or so when everyone said Gene Hackman would overshadow Christopher Reeve... Hackman menely complemented Reeve and both got rather big compliments on their performances.
I've looked over the two actors' filmographies on Wikipedia, and I can't really agree with the premise of Walsh being "more famous" than Whittaker. Walsh has a longer TV and stage career, as well as prior celebrity as a footballer, but Whittaker has a much more extensive career in feature films, notably Attack the Block with John Boyega and Franz Drameh. TV-wise, Walsh is known largely for a stint on Coronation Street and for the lead on Law & Order: UK, while Whittaker's known mainly for her key role in Broadchurch. So their fame mainly comes from working with Chris Chibnall before.
Except you're forgetting what he's most known for in the UK: Game shows such as The Chase and Cash Trapped. I don't know the level of fame those two have in the UK (compared, to say, Strictly Dancing), but that side of his career was remarked on by far the most when his casting was announced. So much so, I had to look him up again just to make sure he was the same Bradley Walsh I was familiar because of Law & Order: UK.
I'm not forgetting that, since I never knew about it in the first place. Anyway, the point remains, it doesn't matter. The Doctor as a role, as an iconic character, is more famous than any one actor. No actor has ever needed prior fame to be the Doctor.
Then I guess you didn't look at his Wikipedia article that closely. But you're right on the larger point.
Five days a week on daytime TV, when only houseparents or the unemployed will be watching, may as well be 5 minutes as far as "fame" goes.
Or even Tennant. Indeed, during the second season, Billie Piper was in fact making more money than Tennant, exactly because she had more fame at the time.