In Another Troubling Sign For Doctor Who, Russell T. Davies Admits The BBC Is Yanking An Episode From Broadcast TV

Cancelation rumors have been swirling for Doctor Who, and now Russell T. Davies has revealed that the BBC cares little about the broadcast, and that a football match may cause an episode of this season to not air at all on broadcast television.

Doctor Who has been embattled with a lot of controversy since Russell T. Davies returned as showrunner, adding gay, black doctor Ncuti Gatwa in the role. The last few weeks have been filled with drama for the Doctor Who brand, as fans speculate whether the show is going to be canceled or not, fueled by The Sun reporting that Doctor Who will not have a Christmas Special in 2025, something the show has not done in six years, as it’s been an annual tradition since the show’s return to have such an extended special episode.

The BBC addressed such rumors that Ncuti Gatwa wants out of the role saying they’re waiting until the end of season 2 to make a decision on whether to continue the show or not.

The rumors come as no surprise with a new Doctor in Ncuti Gatwa, the Christmas special that followed these, “The Church On Ruby Road,” saw a dismal ratings of 4.7 million for its ratings, but the audience quickly tuned out even more as each of the new “season 1” episodes as they branded this new Disney+ iteration received many of the lowest ratings in Doctor Who history as well.

The lowest came with Episode 7 of the 8-episode season, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” posting 2.05 million for the overnight ratings. The finale saw a small uptick, but the trend is clear—audiences are not interested in the gay, black Doctor who constantly lectures them on identity politics.

The latest Christmas Special, “Joy To The World,” is reported to have the lowest overnight ratings for a Christmas special yet again, with 4.11 million, according to Doctor Who TV.

Already, the new companion Varada Sethu has been out defending the show’s woke content saying, "Woke just means inclusive, progressive, and that you care about people. And, as far as I know, the core of Doctor Who is kindness, love, and doing the right thing."

She also acknowledged the current state of the show upsets fans, and seems to be proud about it, saying, "Ncuti was like, 'Look at us. We get to be in the TARDIS. We're going to p*** off so many people.'"

Now, there’s another troubling sign for the future of Doctor Who as the BBC is making an unprecedented move to potentially not even air one of the upcoming season’s episodes on broadcast TV.

Russell T. Davies broke the news according to The Mirror, saying, “The FA Cup is going live on BBC One, and then you have Eurovision going live in the evening, we’re squeezed in the middle. We don’t know if we’ll even be transmitted that day. It will be on iPlayer but you’ll have to sit through a football match to know whether Doctor Who will be out that night.”

“They asked if we wanted to move it,” Davies added, “but I said, ‘That’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard. Let’s find out!’”

Davies has the tendency to try to passive-aggressively spin bad news for Doctor Who as sarcastically portraying it as a good thing. He took a similar tone with David Tennant in an interview when he opined on the potential of being out as showrunner at the end of this season.

The message from the BBC is clear, however: Doctor Who is not a priority for their broadcast. It appears as if they’re anticipating poor ratings, and this may be the final death of the Timelord, who’s already run out of regenerations.

What do you think of the BBC yanking Doctor Who off the air? Leave a comment and let us know.

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