Cult Spy: The Time Lord's Time Slots

Whovian hearts have been sent fluttering recently as their beloved show has been bounced around the Saturday evening schedules to fluctuating ratings. Despite the publicity of the Daleks’ return, overnight viewing figures were almost 2 million down on the previous week’s episode ‘Gridlock’, which was screened at 7.40pm due to football.

With the UK engulfed in glorious weather, many families were out soaking up the sun at the 6.35pm start time of ‘Daleks in Manhattan’. As soon as the clocks approached 7pm, you could almost hear a pitter patter of sunburnt feet scampering from the garden to the television, followed by an instantaneous whimper and facial expressions resembling Edvard Munch's painting 'The Scream' when many discovered that the episode was already halfway through. This, of course, reflects in the overnight ratings.

But why worry when a fourth season of the time-travelling drama has already been commissioned? Cast your minds back to the Autumn of 1989 for a reason why seasoned fans hold their breaths on Sunday mornings waiting for the overnight viewing figures to trundle in like a Dalek on a cobblestones. The first episode of the 26th season had just aired and the viewing figures were in – 3.1 million. Ouch! The lowest in the show’s history. Bear in mind this was in a pre-multichannel age when 15-20 million viewers was the norm for programmes like Coronation Street, EastEnders and The Bill. It didn’t need a Kang from Paradise Towers to graffiti the writing on the wall – time had run out for the Time Lord.

Ah yes, Corrie. In their wisdom (well, a covert attempt to kill off you know Who), the BBC scheduled Doctor Who directly opposite the popular ITV soap on Wednesday nights amidst a dearth of publicity. We’re accustomed to regular Radio Times covers nowadays, but in the decade of hairspray and ripped denim, Doctor Who only had one solitary cover, in 1983.

Arguments were fiercely levelled towards the BBC over their negligence and the fact that the maligned sci-fi drama brought in more money through overseas sales and merchandising than it cost to produce (although this went to BBC Enterprises/Worldwide, and not back into making the show).

Fast forward a few years to 1996, when the Time Lord was back in a feature length, Americanised pilot starring Paul McGann. A double whammy of Des O’Connor and popular drama Bramwell was deployed by ITV to sway viewers, but both channels reaped a very respectable 9 million viewers each. Still, courtesy of dismal US ratings – not helped by scheduling the pilot opposite a highly publicised episode of perennial Yank Absorbaloff Roseanne - there was to be no series.

Many now see that as a blessing in disguise, given the critical and commercial success of Doctor Who’s current incarnation. The show was hailed with reviving the bygone era of Saturday evening family viewing, conquering the chequered likes of Ant and Dec and Celebrity Wrestling in the process. Much of this was attributed to having a fixed 7pm timeslot, with hordes of viewers soon conditioned to switch on the trusty ‘idiot’s lantern’ at the same time every week.

Yet for the third series, we’ve had a 6.35pm start last week, 7.40pm the week before that, plus a 6.45pm showing this Saturday. Then, in a couple of weeks we have the Eurovision Song Contest which will mean a much earlier start than usual. In the past two years, the kitsch crooning competition has caused ‘The Empty Child’ and ‘The Age of Steel’ to start significantly earlier with viewership noticeably down on both occasions.

The BBC has faced accusations that it is shunting Doctor Who to an earlier time in a bid to boost their Any Dream Will Do talent competition in its battle with ITV’s similarly themed Grease Is The Word. A strong lead-in show such as Who means that many casual viewers won’t bother to channel hop and stay rooted to the same channel all night.

However, the BBC refuted this when speaking to Cult Spy, explaining that contractual reasons dictate that the football highlights show Match of the Day must be screened at 10.30pm and no later. All other elements of the schedule must then be fitted accordingly, with ITV adjusting their schedules to place their Grease show in direct competition with the ‘Joseph’ equivalent.

Screening Doctor Who later undeniably boosts ratings, as viewers switching on at 7pm can hang on and won’t miss any action. It also generates a better environment for watching the series when rays of sun aren’t beaming in through gaps in the curtains. But understandably, the BBC doesn’t want it screened too late, at a time when the kiddies should be tucked up in bed (although given the state of modern society they’d probably be out rampaging down their local high street on mopeds picking up ASBOs aplenty).

Nonetheless, it’s a testament to its popularity that even when the time slot is moved around and the sun is blazing outside, Doctor Who consistently ranks as the most viewed programme on a Saturday. Also worth bearing in mind is that those who miss the first screening can catch the later BBC3 repeat on Sunday nights. This seemed to be the case with ‘Daleks in Manhattan’, which reaped 1.1 million viewers last Sunday – a record for a repeat of the Time Lord’s adventures on the channel. But in a cutthroat broadcasting world where today’s flavour of the month can be spat out in disgust tomorrow, many bleary eyes will still be scouring the web for overnight viewing figures every Sunday morning. As Depeche Mode so aptly put it – it’s just a question of time.