Doctor Who: Flux "The Halloween Apocalypse" - Official Ratings & Reviews

After 7 days of catch up viewing, the official figures for the opening episode of Series 13 are now available. It's an interesting figure to say the least, and leaves some questions for the remainder of the series. On top of that, we'll have a look at some of the reviews that have appeared in response to 'The Halloween Apocalypse!"

Data released by BARB TV, the official UK ratings provider, shows that the opening episode of Series 13 had an overall audience of 5.79 million. This includes viewing across all platforms (phones, tablets, PC's and television sets - although how accurately it puts them is not certain since iPlayer viewings are not included). On TV alone, the episode had 5.69 million watching (meaning 100k came from the other media platforms). The final official share sat at a very healthy 31.5% meaning Doctor Who had almost a third of the available TV audience watching that night. 

This figure is a rather small rise of just 1.36 million on the overnight figure of 4.43m, but there are a few possible reasons for this that we'll discuss shortly. Initially, Doctor Who was the most-watched drama of the week, but timeshifted viewing has altered this, dropping the show to third place behind Shetland (6.03m) and The Long Call (6.00m). The show did, however, maintain its placement for the day as being the 2nd most-watched show on Halloween, beaten only by Strictly which had a rather large audience of 8.70m. A full chart for Sunday 31st is listed just below:

The Overall Share is of the 'TV Alone' figure, meaning each one could be a few percentage points out. 

Across the week as a whole, Doctor Who came in 9th place across all channels, and 4th on BBC One. Anyway, let's take a deeper look at how this figure translates into the world of Doctor Who ratings?!

First of all, it is the lowest figure achieved for a series opener since the show returned in 2005, taking this prized position from Series 9's series opener, 'The Magician's Apprentice (2015)' which had 6.54 million viewers. This means we've now dropped to a new lower figure by 750k. However, even with that knowledge, we can't judge it too much or become disheartened because the share was still really strong. Series 9's overall share was only 26.3% meaning this year's is 5.2% higher despite the minimized figure. Of course, this suggests that overall TV audiences are dropping, and this is correct... They are. Overall shares have an inflated amount of viewers because it includes those who recorded and chose to watch on other platforms at later dates within the following week. With that knowledge, a 26.3% share being equal to 6.54 million would suggest a TV audience of around 24.9 million. This is considerably higher than the 2021 standings - around 18 million. Although this is still incredibly high, it is around 7 million shy of where it once was. TV viewing habits are constantly changing, and maybe it's time for official sites to start considering the involvement of online platforms into their official figures before the current method becomes more and more obsolete. Obviously, 18m is still a huge figure, but does continue an ongoing decline in live viewership.

Doctor Who does benefit from online viewing and presence, but from this data, still relies heavily upon live viewership, hence the smaller growth. Just over 75% of the total audience watched live, and this is quite similar to that of previous years (Series 12's was just over 70% and Series 11 sat at around 75% also). 

However, this episode's timeshift (this meaning the amount of viewers who caught up over the coming 7 days) was only 1.35m, considerably lower than any Series opener since 2008. Usually Doctor Who would see a shift of around 2 million, with highs of almost 3. Not anymore. I do believe there could be reason for this, however. With a reduced TV audience, less people are willing to watch, especially when the series is so heavily serialised. Therefore, it is a lot more likely that people will binge it when 'Flux' actually reaches its last chapter. This fits perfectly with the modern audiences obsession with 'binge-watching.' Another reason could simply be because there's less interest, which is a much more pessimistic outlook, but I also have no evidence to provide as to whether this could be true or not. Although this is not the most impressive share, it'll be interesting to see how the show does when 28-day data is released (viewing within a month of initial broadcast). Usually we'd see an extra 300k-600k viewers, so this could take the figure up to 6.39m, but with the change in format, perhaps this could end up being higher. Only time will tell… 

Another point with this. Time shift across all channels has been somewhat reduced. A lot of shows and especially dramas that have been running for a while so have a smaller shift. During the following week, only 9 of the top 50 had a time shift over 1m (If I remember correctly). 

Before we move on to reviews and comments regarding the gripping series opener, if anything is disheartening about the ratings, remember that Doctor Who is already confirmed for Series 14 with Russell T Davies returning to take the helm under Bad Wolf TV... This could promise to be something brilliant!

Anyway, let's take a look at some thoughts on the series opener:

Several newspapers such as 'The Evening Standard' & 'The Telegraph' gave the episode 3 out of 5 stars saying that the episode 

"feels a lot like 50 minutes of foundations being carefully laid down for the five episodes to come." 

'The Radio Times' gave it 4 out of five stars, and gave a metaphor heavy review excited to see what Chris Chibnall (the writer) will cook up for the next five chapter. The AV Club seemed to give a more mixed review, hinting that there's perhaps a lot still 'in flux' similar to that of 'The Evening Standard.' The episode also currently has a 7.1/10 on IMDb, although many fans and perhaps many television/film viewers in general tend to avoid IMDb for its very influenced ratings. Many fans are prone to rating the episodes 1/10 and lower scores before the episode has even aired, and this has been an ongoing issue throughout Jodie Whittaker's tenure on the show... So whilst 7.1 is still rather good, it perhaps isn't the most unbiased representation of audience reaction. Twitter appears to have been mostly positive, and that is sometimes a good place to find audience interaction. 

Beyond this, the BBC has a system called the 'Appreciation Index.' This is where a panel of 20,000 people go online and rate shows out of ten, and then this is multiped to give a figure out of 100. The system was altered slightly in 2012, so higher figures became that little bit harder to get. Although the criteria for providing an AI is unknown, the average for BBC One drama is 80. 'The Halloween Apocalypse' received a 76. Numerous people thought this to be low, in fact matching the season low of a 2006 episode. However, there appears to be a logical reasoning behind it. When the show does anything experimental, the AI is usually reduced. the Series 9 episode 'Heaven Sent' is widely regarded as one of the the best episodes in the show's rich history, but only received an AI of 80, whereas every other episode (bar one) received a higher score. The AI figure of 76 also puts the episode lower than some of the worse received episodes in the show's history such as 'Orphan 55' which got 77, and 'Fear Her' which got 83. As a result, nobody is entirely sure whether this is the best way to judge audience reaction also. Having said that, it would appear that feedback is mixed to positive, with nobody really having anything overwhelmingly negative to say. 

With that, I bring my findings on 'Doctor Who: Flux "The Halloween Apocalypse" to a close. Overall, the series may not quite be achieving the highs it once did, but with an everchanging TV industry, it is only to be expected. The show is performing perfectly fine, and regardless, its future is promised and left in the safe hands of Russell T Davies. Further data about future episodes will be revealed every Monday.

Tune in to Chapter Three - Once, Upon Time, on Sunday 14th November at 6:30PM.

December Update: To my surprise, my estimated 28-day figure was 100% correct - 6.39m. This is a pretty strong rise that’s almost 2 million up on the overnight figure.