'Doctor Who' ratings: Are fans really switching off?

There has been a lot of cynicism in the newspapers regarding Doctor Who recently, especially concerning its apparently-dwindling popularity.

Earlier this week, The Sun (and many other sources subsequently) reported that sci-fi fans were "switching off" because showrunner Steven Moffat has made storylines "too complicated".

Smile-on-cue presenter Vernon Kay then rubbed it in when he tweeted how All Star Family Fortunes beat Who in the overnight ratings: "Wow! The Time Lord can beat the Daleks but not Family Fortunes! Great!"

But hold your horses Vern... how many of your viewers were just tuning in early for The X Factor? Probably quite a few, given that - judging by our reliable stats - All Star Family Fortunes peaked with 6.2m (27%) in the final 15 minutes, which brought its average (5.19m/23%) up quite a bit.

Unless of course the British public were desperately wondering who would be crowned winner in the much-anticipated face-off between DJ Trevor Nelson and former Bucks Fizz singer Cheryl Baker, who were squaring up to earn a few thousand for charity. Nah, thought not.

Doctor Who still averaged a respectable 5.17m (23.8%) last Saturday, but most importantly, that audience will rise around 25%. 'The Girl Who Waited' (which aired a fortnight ago) went from an overnight audience of 6m to what's called an official consolidated rating of 7.6m.

Meanwhile, the official average of All Star Family Fortunes is usually less than 100,000 higher than its overnights, despite the fact it's available on ITV Player.

Doctor Who regularly tops the BBC's iPlayer charts with astronomical online figures, while 200,000+ tune in to BBC Three's Friday evening repeat, and many more decide to record it on Sky+ and other platforms.

While it's true that when Russell T Davies was in charge in the Eccleston/Tennant era, Doctor Who would consistently grab 7m to 8m in overnights alone, there has been a clear shift in tone in the Moffat-era sci-fi adventures.

With the storylines now far more complex and challenging, Saturday evenings with the folks perhaps isn't everyone's desired time to enjoy and unravel a Doctor Who episode. Anyway, even if you wanted to, the chances are someone's already glued to Family Fortunes. You wouldn't want to miss one of Vernon's zinger one liners would you?

So showrunner Steven Moffat might just have a bit of a point when he argues that overnight ratings shouldn't be as much of a valuable source as they used to be.

What do you think about Doctor Who's ratings? Is the BBC, Steven Moffat or Matt Smith the problem, or do you agree with us?

BARB ratings data supplied by Attentional