DW (almost) becomes afternoon show on BBC

[23skidoo]

I mentioned this in another thread and it bears repeating: I really feel sorry for Doctor Who fans in the UK who have to put up with the apparently random scheduling of the show.

The latest? It's been announced that Vampires of Venice will air at 6 PM, the earliest start time for the series since it returned in 2005, and virtually an afternoon time slot. The culprit -- that damn Over the Rainbow series that frakked up last week's episode. Apparently they don't want to be scheduled against Britain's Got Talent so they pulled a Jay Leno on Doctor Who.

http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/04/week-6-schedule-update.html

Here in Canada (and the US) our broadcasters set a time for the series and they're sticking with it -- only the end times may vary because of the length of the episodes aren't all 45 minutes.

Does anyone at the BBC have a clue how to handle Doctor Who anymore, or are things so reality-happy over there that no one cares? Honestly, I love Doctor Who to bits and I believe it deserves every accolade it gets. But the cynic in me does sometimes wonder if it's so popular because it seems to be one of only 3 shows on British TV that isn't a reality show or Corry/Eastenders.

In answer to the inevitable "You're in Canada, why should you care?" response to me, well, caring, is because I want to see this series last to see Season 7, and 8, and frankly pushing the show to ever-earlier timeslots, and shifting it from week to week, can only serve to harm the ratings for the thing, because frankly by this point if I were in the UK I would either have given up on watching it on broadcast and would have turned to either iPlayer or other methods, or I might have done what I've already done with several shows on US TV and decided to wait till the DVD/Blu-Ray comes out. If they keep bouncing the show around, they're gonna kill it. That's why I care.

Alex

 

[Bacl]

I want to see this series last to see Season 7, and 8, and frankly pushing the show to ever-earlier timeslots, and shifting it from week to week, can only serve to harm the ratings for the thing

I wouldn't worry if I were you. This is Doctor Who, not Mystery Science Theater 3000, Futurama, News Radio, Arrested Development, or Firefly.

I doesn't have a 'cult' following. It's #1 and will be around for another 50 years at this point.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

^Besides, bad timeslots didn't kill NewsRadio. Phil Hartman's wife did that.

And Arrested Development's ratings were always so bad that it's a miracle it lasted as long as it did. (Sit Down Shut Up was the Mitch Hurwitz series that got totally raped in the ass by FOX's scheduling people.)

And does the BBC ever care about ratings? It's not like they have advertisers to satisfy. Hell, when they cancelled the series back in the 1980s I got the sense that it had less to do with ratings and more to do with TPTB at the BBC simply not liking the show and thinking it's stupid.

 

[Jax]

Even at 6pm Doctor Who will probably pull in 6-7 million and a 30% share so I wouldn't worry too much though it's a big annoyance. BBC do take ratings into account but look at share over total viewers and even then its not the only thing they look at. Doctor Who makes the BBC a lot of money worldwide and I would guess it makes BBC more money than any other show full stop.

BBC though should stop using Doctor Who as a set up fro other shows especially ones that get a lot less viewers than Doctor Who. The BBC should air wipeout earlier and then have a two part Over the Rainbow before and after Who with the Lottery as the middle man.

Doctor Who should be the top dog and occupy the 7pm slot for most times though the World Cup will cause an headace am sure in June. Doctor who ends June 26th far as I know unless football takes up a week and it will be nice to see it occupy the 7pm slot at least once

 

[diankra]

^Besides, bad timeslots didn't kill NewsRadio. Phil Hartman's wife did that.

And Arrested Development's ratings were always so bad that it's a miracle it lasted as long as it did. (Sit Down Shut Up was the Mitch Hurwitz series that got totally raped in the ass by FOX's scheduling people.)

And does the BBC ever care about ratings? It's not like they have advertisers to satisfy. Hell, when they cancelled the series back in the 1980s I got the sense that it had less to do with ratings and more to do with TPTB at the BBC simply not liking the show and thinking it's stupid.

The problem seems to be that the new(-ish) controller does seem to care about ratings, and is indulging in all this counter-productive competitive scheduling against ITV (she doesn't care if Doctor Who's rating suffer if the effect is a boost to the next programme - a stategy that doesn't seem to be working, as Rainbow is still losing half of Who's audience, whereas Rainbow then Who might build well).

 

[wamdue]

most have missed this 6pm thing, dont know how they plan to air Confidential at 18:45 on BBC 3 that night

 

[Demonland]

Doctor who ends June 26th far as I know unless football takes up a week and it will be nice to see it occupy the 7pm slot at least once

Do you know if the good Doctor will be airing on the weekend of the 19th of June? I will be in London and would love to catch the show live for the first time ever.

 

[Snaploud]

I want to see this series last to see Season 7, and 8, and frankly pushing the show to ever-earlier timeslots, and shifting it from week to week, can only serve to harm the ratings for the thing

I wouldn't worry if I were you. This is Doctor Who, not Mystery Science Theater 3000, Futurama, News Radio, Arrested Development, or Firefly.

I doesn't have a 'cult' following. It's #1 and will be around for another 50 years at this point.

Let's hope that's not an exaggeration...Of course, Doctor Who was also off the air for about fifteen years prior to its 2005 incarnation (minus one tv movie in 1996), so a steady 50 years (with no decade-long gaps) isn't a certainty. No show is invulnerable to decline.

 

[wamdue]

Doctor who ends June 26th far as I know unless football takes up a week and it will be nice to see it occupy the 7pm slot at least once

Do you know if the good Doctor will be airing on the weekend of the 19th of June? I will be in London and would love to catch the show live for the first time ever.

given that the show will take a week off for Eurovision, you should be alright.

 

[Demonland]

Doctor who ends June 26th far as I know unless football takes up a week and it will be nice to see it occupy the 7pm slot at least once

Do you know if the good Doctor will be airing on the weekend of the 19th of June? I will be in London and would love to catch the show live for the first time ever.

given that the show will take a week off for Eurovision, you should be alright.

great now I have to convince Mrs Demonland to stay in on Saturday night in London to allow me to watch a "kids" show.

 

[Starkers]

6 o'clock isn't an afternoon slot, in fact I'm pretty sure that's when Who used to air back in the day on a saturday (might even have been earlier) I just wish they'd pick a time and stick to it, be it 6, 6.30, or 7, of course the other problem is that shows like the Rainbow show or Strictly etc have variable lenghts due to the contestants being whittled down(not literally, though there's a Who story for ya!) which doesn't help.

Sorry alex, usually you talk a lot of sense but I think calling 6 o'clock an afternoon slot's just silly. Afternoon is 2 or 3 pm. In fact I wouldn't even classify 6 as teatime (heck its when I always used to watch Next Gen on BBC2 on a Wednesday so it feels like a sci-fi time to me) Sure ITV used to show things like the A-Team even earlier on a Saturday, 5ish if I recall.

 

[Pindar]

These schedule changes are what series link is for.

I watch over the rainbow, and I like it. :P

 

[Starkers]

I watch it sometimes, it has pretty girls in nice dresses in it...of course it also has Graham Norton...

 

[Pindar]

it has pretty girls in nice dresses in it...

This is what I am saying, what's not to like?

Apart from Graham Norton.

 

[Deckerd]

Is that girl with the big gap in her teeth still in?

 

[Starkers]

No I think she went last week. I quite liked her because she wasn't as perfect and pretty and generic as a lot of the others.

 

[VDCNI]

It's unfortunate but no big deal - after all the old series used to get shown at 5:15pm and that wasn't considered an afternoon slot.

A regular time slot would be nice but Saturday evenings tend to move around a lot and Who going out at 7pm every week would be a problem in a few weeks when it would clash with the BGT final and two England world cup games.

Who's live ratings don't get hit that much by the earlier slot and all it means is their time shift ratings go up massively and the iPlayer viewings are also huge plus it gets repeated on the Sunday & Friday.

If anything this is a sign of the BBC's confidence in Who and they know full well how strong the non live ratings are.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I thought the reason they were doing this was exactly because ITV complained about it last time? ITV Didn't think BBC should be competing for ratings putting their biggest shows up against ITVs biggest.

 

[Starkers]

Also Strictly kinda lost the ratings battle with the X-Factor as well (unfortunately)

 

[Pindar]

Is that girl with the big gap in her teeth still in?

No she has finally been stripped of her shoes and flown back over the rainbow.