Russell T. Davies Alludes He May Be Out As Doctor Who Showrunner After Season 2: "There's Conversations About That"
Doctor Who has been embattled with a lot of controversy ever since the return of Russell T. Davies as showrunner, who seemed to delight in transforming the show into something unrecognizable to long-time sci-fi viewers. Now, reports are that Disney is looking at replacing him at the end of Ncuti Gatwa’s second season.
Ratings on the 60th Anniversary Specials were already the lowest on record for Doctor Who specials, with viewership at 5.08 million, 4.83 million, and the final special, “The Giggle,” only receiving 4.62 million.
With a new doctor in Ncuti Gatwa, the Christmas special that followed these, “The Church On Ruby Road,” saw a small uptick to 4.7 million for its ratings, but the audience quickly tuned out 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 a dismal 2.05 million for the overnight ratings. The finale saw a small uptick again, but the trend is clear—audiences are not interested in the gay, black Doctor who constantly lectures them on identity politics.
Now, the new 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.
With such atrocious numbers, the BBC stated that they were waiting until season two’s numbers came in to make any moves on Doctor Who being renewed or not, despite rumors that Ncuti Gatwa would be exiting at the end of season 2 persisting because he allegedly was not happy with how the show was received.
As the BBC begins to ramp up marketing for the new season, it’s been revealed Russell T. Davies has doubled down on identity politics and diversity, equity and inclusion by hiring a full slate of LGBTQ+ writers for the new episodes. Not only that, but Juno Dawson, a man who pretends to be a woman, was out bragging that his episode of the show was the most expensive ever produced.
With fans grumbling that this season will likely be worse than the first, it appears as if Disney can read the tea leaves to see that ratings are not likely to get better, but only will worsen for the upcoming season.
Davies appeared recently on David Tennant’s podcast, joking that when his run ends he won’t go back a third time. Tennant replied he thought he wouldn’t go back a second time either.
Davies replied, “That’s very true, but I’m not getting younger, darling.”
He continued, “But I will need to slow down at some point. That’ll come. Last time it was Steven Moffat, that wasn’t even a day’s work, like, ‘Right, off you go!’”
He added: “There’s thinking about that, there’s conversations about that, but it’s hard. It’s a tricky one. But they better exist… imagine, I’m dead at the desk. The cliche would kill me!”
The implication is that Disney and the BBC have had conversations about replacing him. These talks have been going on for months according to the Tachyon Pulse Podcast, who also says that Gatwa has voiced behind the scenes that he doesn’t want to return without Davies, which would confirm the rumors of his exit after season 2 as well.
According to his inside sources, he says Disney is behind the push to make the change, and any future showrunner would have to have Disney’s blessings beyond being someone the BBC would pick for the show.
He alleges Michael Sheen, who appeared in “The Doctor’s Wife,” was high up on the list for potential showrunners, and that Disney is interested in having him on board.
There’s also been talk about Disney picking up the entire back catalog of Doctor Who episodes for Disney+.
What do you think of Russell T. Davies potentially being out at Doctor Who? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Disney and BBC need to go back and watch Dr. Who from the beginning and go through every reincarnation of the Time Traveler from Gallifrey. They need to pay attention to what made the show good.
Then they need to cut out the DEI nonsense and boot the LGBT+ shit to curb and make a good show that people can watch.