Doctor Who: Nightmare In Silver Overnight Ratings

Overnight ratings for Nightmare In Silver, the penultimate episode in the current series of Doctor Who, have been released.

The return of the Cybermen, in an episode penned by Neil Gaiman, pulled in 4.7 million viewers with a peak audience of 5.6 million viewers. The episode saw guest stars Tamzin Outhwaite (soon to join BBC’s New Tricks) and Warwick Davis join series regulars Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman.

Overnight figures are often quoted by the media and used to judge a show’s success – rather unfairly. That’s because final consolidated figures, usually released ten days later, include those viewers who recorded and watched later and are generally considered to be a better judge of a show’s popularity/success.

Doctor Who often see’s its final ratings rise by over 2 million viewers compared to its overnight figures; taking it up from over 5 million viewers to nearer 8 million. These figures do not include downloads via the BBC iPlayer service which often has over 1 million requests per episode for Doctor Who.

So despite tabloid reports to the contrary Doctor Who remains very popular with audiences who are choosing to view it according to their own schedules.

[Ratings figures via Doctor Who Newspage]