Last week, Doctor Who fans made sure to catch the season 11 opener “The Woman Who Fell To Earth” to see Jodie Whittaker’s proper debut as the Thirteenth Doctor. The result was that the episode earned an impressive 8.2 million viewers in overnight ratings. For comparison, this was the highest-viewed “regular” installment of the show (so not counting one-off specials) since 2008. But the big question was, would this continue on?
Well, we now know that the answer to that is a big fat yes. This Sunday’s second episode, titled “The Ghost Monument,” scored a strong 7.1 million viewers. Sure, that’s a million less than last week, but it’s actually a low drop-off in the grand scheme of things. For instance, “Into the Dalek” – Peter Capaldi’s second episode from 2014 – dipped by 2 million.
The week-long ratings for “Woman” – those that factor in viewers who caught up on services like BBC iPlayer – have also been collected and reveal that the complete figure for the season opener’s a whopping 10.54 million. That officially makes it the most-watched episode of Doctor Who since 2013’s “The Time of the Doctor” and the biggest season premiere of the series since “Rose,” the episode that kicked off the revived run in 2005.
Clearly, then, the new era of Doctor Who is doing something right. Despite all the talk of casting an actress as the Doctor being a controversial move, the incredible viewing figures make it obvious that the vast majority of fans – both hardcore and casual – think it’s a fantastic idea and are enjoying Whittaker’s adventures through time and space so far.
And those will continue this week in the next episode of Doctor Who, titled “Rosa,” which will see the TARDIS team meet Rosa Parks in 1950s Alabama.
