9.4 million people watch Journey’s End

Sunday, July 06, 2008

The final episode of series four of Doctor Who attracted almost 50% of the viewing audience.

According to the BBC’s Web site, the overnight viewing figures for Journey’s End were an average of 9.4 million people. At its highest point – the closing fifteen minutes of the programme – there were 9.8 million viewers.

Although Doctor Who typically does very well, this is a new high, attracting around half of the entire viewing audience.

With the story kept a tightly guarded secret, and bookmakers taking bets on whether there would be a regeneration (and if so, who the new Doctor would be), it seems that many more people tuned.

Although this is not Russell T Davies’ final story (he is to pen several specials before series five airs in 2010) it was very much seen as his ‘swan song’ and he certainly pulled out all of the stops. The episode moved at a frantic pace and was a great Dalek story, with a reappearance of Davros that was terrific (something of a relief after the somewhat dire wasted opportunity that was the comeback of the Master last year).