Doctor Who a 'Long Way' From Being Benched, Despite Ratings Slide

The Doctor is in, for the foreseeable future.

Despite a sharp ratings decline from the season prior, Doctor Who is in no danger of being TARDISpatched with, a BBC exec made clear on Monday.

Doctor Who opened Season 12 on New Year’s Day with 4.9 million total viewers in the UK, down 40 percent from Jodie Whittaker’s well-watched October 2018 debut as the Thirteenth Doctor. Since then, this season’s audience has decreased almost every week in the UK, with Sunday’s penultimate episode hitting a low of 3.7 million.

Quite similarly, Stateside on BBC America, this season thus far has averaged 536,000 total viewers (through eight episodes), down 40 percent from Season 11.

Even so, BBC drama controller Piers Wenger stands by the iconic sci-fi series — while Whittaker has said that she is on board for another season, in the event of renewal.

“I worked on Doctor Who myself and produced it for many years and I can honestly say I don’t think it’s been in better health editorially,” Deadline reports Wenger as saying Monday at an event in London. “The production values have never been better.

“It’s an incredibly important show for young audiences, it’s still watched by families in a world where there are fewer shows that have the power to do that,” he added. “It will always be an important show for us and we’re a very long way from wanting to rest it.”

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