10 Things Nobody Wants To Admit About Doctor Who
3. The Ratings Aren't As Important As We Think
We might all be obsessed with Doctor Who's viewing figures, but in reality they really don't matter that much.
20 years after it returned to our screens, Doctor Who comfortably sits in the 5 million viewers range, putting it in line with other stalwart BBC shows like EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing. However, what marks Doctor Who out from its soap opera and reality show counterparts is the sheer amount of cash it generates for the BBC's commercial arm.
As Steven Moffat told an audience at the University of Glasgow just last year:
"Everyone talks about ratings as if they matter. I was in a position to know how much money that show generated. That's the number you wanna look at. And that's why Doctor Who still gets made. It's a massive show and it's never not culturally important."
In the days where IP is king, a strong brand with decades of history like Doctor Who is gold dust. It's why Disney was so interested in the first place. Whether or not Doctor Who has driven subscriber numbers up in the way they would've liked is a different conversation about the streaming age. But here in the UK, the BBC appears to have long since given up caring about the ratings, with Doctor Who recently being named one of the UK's top TV exports, and the BBC themselves naming it one of their key brands for the future.
Regardless, every small fluctuation in the viewing figures will no doubt have people yelling that Doctor Who is on death's door, as has been the case for over ten years now.