'Doctor Who' premiere becomes BBC America's most watched telecast
BBCAmerica.com also has a big day on Saturday
Karen Gillan of 'Doctor Who'
Credit: BBC America
Perhaps the Time Lord should visit the New World more often?
Saturday (April 23) night's launch of the new season of "Doctor Who" -- featuring The Doctor (Matt Smith) on a visit to Monument Valley -- has become the highest-rated, most-watched telecast in BBC America history.
The combination of rave reviews, aggressive promotion and day-and-date airing with the UK led to a premiere audience of 1.268 million viewers, up by 71,000 viewers from last April's "Doctor Who" premiere.
We'll leave it for you to decide if growth of 71,000 viewers feels like adequate compensation for that level of promotion and publicity and the much-vaunted day-and-date premiere abroad, which was intended to take online piracy out of the loop.
BBC America also is eager to celebrate "Doctor Who" coming in as the top TV series on the iTunes store, Saturday ranking as the largest-ever traffic day for BBCAmerica.com and the apparent success of the "Doctor Who" Tumblr page.
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
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April 25, 2011 at 7:46PM EST Reply to CommentI certainly would have watched it on BBCAmerica if I actually got that channel. Maybe NBC should have gotten it and plugged it into the Event slot. The Doctor and Chuck on the same night? I'd go for that.