Doctor Who‘s recent New Year’s special was largely a very pleasing outing. As it saw the return of a Dalek for the first time since Jodie Whittaker became the new Time Lord, “Resolution” was probably the episode of season 11 that received the most fan approval after a somewhat controversial run. However, that didn’t exactly reflect in the ratings.
The Hollywood Reporter is telling us today that the latest adventure for the TARDIS team was actually the lowest rated Doctor Who festive special ever. The overnight ratings were 5.15 million viewers, which is far below the next least-watched festive special. That’d be “The Return of Doctor Mysterio,” which brought in 5.68 million viewers.
Furthermore, “Resolution” was down 170,000 viewers from the season 11 finale, “The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos,” and was also the first episode from this season not to out-perform its 2017 counterpart. Yes, as you’ve surely heard by now, every single one of Jodie’s outings this season did better than the equivalent episode in Peter Capaldi’s final season.
But should we be concerned that the numbers for “Resolution” dipped? Well, probably not. In all likelihood, the drop compared to previous festive specials is due to the change in airing the episode on New Year’s Day, whereas on every other occasion, it’s been on Christmas. And as Digital Spy points out, NYD ratings across the board were down. It wasn’t just Who‘s numbers that saw a dip.
Besides, with season 12 of Doctor Who already in production and Jodie and her companions all confirmed to be returning, there really isn’t any reason to worry. Are the numbers disappointing? Yeah, a little bit, but they’re far from the end of the world and with any luck, when the gang returns to our screens for their next outing, things will pick back up.
