'Doctor Who' Spinoff Sees Ratings Sink Nearly 30% Between Episodes Despite Releasing Back-To-Back

The viewership ratings for the Doctor Who spinoff, The War Between the Land and the Sea, declined nearly 30% despite the first two episodes releasing back-to-back.

According to the Radio Times the first episode of the spinoff brought in 2.82 million viewers. Those numbers are actually decent relatively speaking. The highest viewed episode from the 2024 Doctor Who series only hit 2.62 million. Earlier this year, the highest overnight ratings the show’s second season achieved was 2.57 million. It’s low point was 1.5 million.

However, as has been well documented those numbers are abysmal, historically speaking. Doctor Who TV notes that the show only averaged 2.34 million in overnight viewership when Ncuti Gatwa played the Doctor. In comparison, Jodie Whittaker’s episodes averaged 4.68 million. Capaldi’s episodes averaged 4.55 million while Matt Smith averaged 6.11 million, David Tennant averaged 7.88 million, and Christopher Eccleston averaged 7.72 million.

Not only is 2.82 million an abysmal number historically, about 30% of those people turned the show off before the second episode aired. The Radio Times shared that only 2.05 million tuned in for the second episode, which aired directly after the first one.

And it’s not hard to understand why. Numerous reviewers pointed to the show’s woke agenda. On IMDb, one user noted how the show pushes gender ideology, “Within TWO minutes the main character wakes up his, of course, mixed race daughter takes her down to a car and introduces her as ‘they’.”

Another made a similar observation and recommended viewers avoid the show, “I simply beggars belief that the BBC continue to pander to the small but presumably vociferous band of Russell T Davis supporters. All the usual tropes and cliches trotted out as per the last few seasons of the threadbare Dr Who franchise. But over and above this, it’s just not very good. Bland script, average acting, some nice scenery and a story line that was done much much better by the John Pertwee doctor back in the day. Avoid.”

Another indicated how the show is constantly preaching woke ideology, “Like the characters, great effects but STOP with the constant BBC preaching!!! Every show destroyed but political bull!! Please let’s use escapism remain in something ... the worlds gone to hell we know but we see that constantly on the news, ai don’t need it in my escapes from reality!! I tune in to escape the negativity not to be blamed for everything.”

Another wrote, “Dr Who has always been cartoonish in nature, far fetched and sometimes worth the romp. At least in the old days. The PC Wok dross dished up over the last 20 years or so has not been worth the time needed to watch. From the first two episodes this is just more BBC DEI/Wok nonsense scripted by what one assumes was a team 12 year olds. Save yourself the time and give it a miss as there are many more far better products out there to spend your viewing time om.”

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