{"id":394341,"date":"2011-04-24T15:19:20","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T15:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/24\/doctor-who-opener-watched-by-6-5m\/"},"modified":"2011-04-24T15:19:20","modified_gmt":"2011-04-24T15:19:20","slug":"doctor-who-opener-watched-by-6-5m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/24\/doctor-who-opener-watched-by-6-5m\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who opener watched by 6.5m"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"81.9120769741\"><span><span>24 April 2011<\/span> <span>Last updated at<\/span> <span>11:18 ET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The first episode in the new series of Doctor Who was watched by an average audience of 6.5 million viewers, according to overnight viewing figures.<\/p>\n<p>On a sunny day in parts of the UK, that was down from the eight million recorded by overnight figures on Matt Smith&#8217;s show debut in April 2010.<\/p>\n<p>The Impossible Astronaut had an average audience share of 36.7%. Figures peaked at seven million.<\/p>\n<p>The episode featured aliens partly inspired by Edvard Munch&#8217;s The Scream.<\/p>\n<p>BBC One viewers watched as Smith&#8217;s Doctor was reunited with Karen Gillan&#8217;s Amy Pond, Arthur Darvill&#8217;s Rory Williams and Alex Kingston&#8217;s River Song in 1960s America.<\/p>\n<p>While final consolidated viewing figures &#8211; which include playback on recording devices &#8211; will push ratings higher, The Impossible Astronaut is likely to be the least watched series opener since Doctor Who was relaunched in 2005.<\/p>\n<p>The new episode was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/tvandradio\/8465668\/Doctor-Who-episode-1-The-Impossible-Astronaut-review.html\" title=\"Daily Telegrpah review\">described by the Daily Telegraph<\/a> as a &#8220;wordy episode which concentrated more on atmosphere than pace and visual thrills&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div readability=\"28.9663608563\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/entertainment-arts-13180650#story_continues_2\">Continue reading the main story<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Doctor Who series openers since 2005<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>9.6m<\/strong> &#8211; The Eleventh Hour &#8211; <strong>3\/4\/2010<\/strong> (Matt Smith)<\/li>\n<li><strong>9.1m<\/strong> &#8211; Partners in Crime &#8211; <strong>5\/4\/2008<\/strong> (David Tennant)<\/li>\n<li><strong>8.7m<\/strong> &#8211; Smith and Jones &#8211; <strong>31\/3\/2007<\/strong> (DT)<\/li>\n<li><strong>8.6m<\/strong> &#8211; New Earth &#8211; <strong>15\/4\/2006<\/strong> (DT)<\/li>\n<li><strong>10.8m<\/strong> &#8211; Rose &#8211; <strong>26\/3\/2005<\/strong> (Christopher Ecclestone)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Source: Barb consolidated figures<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Thanks, in part to &#8220;fizzing dialogue&#8221; and &#8220;a great concept&#8221; for a new monster, it was &#8220;a cracking start&#8221; to the new series, the paper added.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/news\/la-et-dr-who-review-20110421,0,983105.story\" title=\"Los Angeles Times review\">The Los Angeles Times<\/a>, reviewing the programme because it is shown on BBC America, said Smith had &#8220;screwed into this role good and tight&#8221;, praising his Doctor as &#8220;an ancient child, an unstable mix of authority and impulsiveness&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But Kevin O&#8217;Sullivan, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/tv-entertainment\/columnists\/kevin-osullivan\/2011\/04\/24\/who-needs-a-plot-dr-who-that-s-who-115875-23081954\/\" title=\"Sunday Mirror review\">writing in the Sunday Mirror<\/a>, said the episode was called The Impossible Astronaut because it was &#8220;impossible to understand&#8221; complaining that &#8220;this ball of all-round confusion was no way to start a series&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The episode had been written for &#8220;strictly sci-fi nerds only&#8221;, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday&#8217;s episode began with a dedication to the memory of the late Doctor Who actress Elisabeth Sladen who died of cancer this week at the age of 63.<\/p>\n<p>The actress also appeared in four series of spin-off show The Sarah Jane Adventures on children&#8217;s channel CBBC, which began in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the The Impossible Astronaut, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/iplayer\/episode\/b0112hzr\/My_Sarah_Jane_A_Tribute_to_Elisabeth_Sladen\/\" title=\"My Sarah Jane: A Tribute to Elisabeth Sladen\">a tribute to Sladen<\/a> &#8211; who starred opposite Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker as the Doctor&#8217;s assistant between 1973 and 1976 &#8211; was screened on CBBC.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday night&#8217;s tribute featured Smith as well as his Doctor Who predecessor David Tennant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Go here to see the original:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/go\/rss\/int\/news\/-\/news\/entertainment-arts-13180650\" title=\"Doctor Who opener watched by 6.5m\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Doctor Who opener watched by 6.5m<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 24 April 2011 Last updated at 11:18 ET The first episode in the new series of Doctor Who was watched by an average audience of 6.5 million viewers, according to overnight viewing figures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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