Doctor Who Viewing Figures Update: Sontaran FINALS, Survivor +7, and Vanquisher Overnights

Doctor Who: Flux now has a complete set of overnights. Plus there are final viewing figures for War of the Sontarans, and +7 numbers for Survivors of the Flux

The picture of Doctor Who: Flux’s viewing figures performance continues to come into focus with this week’s viewing figures update. Thanks to BARB, we not only have the final official figures for the first third of this series, but we also have a complete set of overnights. And, of course, with the addition of the first week’s time shift numbers for Survivors of the Flux, we have an almost complete set of those +7 figures too. So what do these updates for War of the Sontarans, Survivors of the Flux and The Vanquishers suggest?

War of the Sontarans now has its official and final results

After 28 days, War of the Sontarans has an official final result of 5.5m viewers. That’s an additional 0.41m viewers who’ve caught up with Crimea set adventure in the last three weeks. It makes for a total time-shift of 1.54m, an increase of 38.9% from its initial overnight. Its total is down 0.89m (13.9%) from the series premiere, in part driven by slightly weaker time-shifting, with 28% of War’s final number coming from time-shifting compared to 30.7% for the series premiere. They’re both within the normal range for the current era, though, which has averaged a time-shift of 28.8% so far. It also means War of the Sontaran finished in the chart at #13 for the week, climbing up one slot from its initial placing.

These numbers do come with a caveat, though. BARB usually include the so-called ‘Four Screens’ number in their official result, including not just TV catch up services but streaming on laptops, phones and other devices. However, it’s unclear those are included this time, so we might expect an update later, marginally pushing up War’s result. Indeed, BARB seem to be know revisiting all of the Four Screen data, so we may see increases for other episodes too.

Survivors of the Flux drops just outside the Top 20 as ratings grabber I’m a Celebrity returns

We also have the +7 viewing figures update for the penultimate episode of Doctor Who: Flux. After one week, Survivors of the Flux’s +7 viewing figure is 4.72m. That’s 0.9m extra viewers who caught up with the episode during the week, an increase of 23.6%. It’s also up 0.25m (5.6%) on previous episode Village of the Angels, possibly reflecting the strength of that episode’s already iconic cliffhanger.  It also puts the episode, in which the Doctor finally confronted Tectuen, just outside the week’s Top Twenty at #22. This included being pushed five places down the chart by the various editions of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. Indeed, in a week dominated by competitive reality shows like Strictly Come Dancing and I’m a Celeb, Doctor Who is currently the second most watched drama of the week.

The same word of warning applies here, though. BARB haven’t include the Four Screens number as usual. Instead these are purely people who used catch up services via their televisions. Assuming the Four Screen numbers for War of the Sontarans and Survivors of the Flux are revealed in the next week, Blogtor Who will include them in next week’s update.

Series finale The Vanquishers makes a small increase on Survivors of the Flux

Finally, we have the initial overnight results for the grand finale of Doctor Who: Flux. 3.58m viewers watched The Vanquishers overnight. That’s a small decrease of 0.24m (6.3%) on last week’s episode. But it appears the episodes still benefits from the finale factor and the bounce experienced by Survivors of the Flux, being 0.13m ahead of Village of the Angels.

The overnights only give a very rough picture, with so much depending on time-shifting. But with all six episodes of Flux now aired, it’s worth noting it dropped only 0.85m (19%) across the entire series. For comparison, the average premiere-to-finale drop for Doctor Who since 2005 has been 16%. That includes some exceptional years like 2008 where Journey’s End actually added 12% to Partners in Crime’s number on overnights. But also years like 2005, when The Parting of the Ways scored overnights 38% smaller than series relaunch Rose. While Matt Smith’s first series dropped 39% of its overnight viewers between The Eleventh Hour and The Big Bang.

From premiere to finale, audiences for Doctor Who: Flux fell 19%, the lowest attrition rate of the current era

Series Thirteen’s 19% actually replicates the 19% of Peter Capaldi’s final series drop almost exactly. Indeed, our overview of Jodie Whittaker’s whole era becomes more and more complete, it just reinforces the impression of an initial, massive, boost for her initial episodes, before returning to what was business as usual for the Capaldi era. But for a sixteen year old drama in this day and age to still be getting the same, or even slightly more, than it was in 2016 and 2017, is remarkable.

Doctor Who: Flux may have finished on television, but it will be another month before we have all the final viewing figures for the series. In fact, we’ll have the initial results for Eve of the Daleks before the final ones for Flux. Blogtor Who will keep you updated across the next few weeks as those numbers come in. You can also expect us to take a look in more detail at time-shifting, chart positions and audience share. And with more information recently come to light into the opaque world of streaming platforms, with viewing figures available for the likes of Disney+’s Marvel shows and Netflix’s viral hit Squid Game, we’ll see how Doctor Who holds up against the competition in an increasingly fractured media environment.

Doctor Who will return on New Year’s Day with Eve of the Daleks

Sarah (Aisling Bea) owns and runs ELF storage, and Nick (Adjani Salmon) is a customer who visits his unit every year on New Year’s Eve. This year, however, their night turns out to be a little different than planned as they find themselves joining forces with the Doctor, Dan and Yaz in a fight against the Daleks.