That’s a whole year without Doctor Who. There’s no Christmas special this year, but a Doctor Who for New Years instead. Now the BBC have confirmed Jodie Whittaker and all three of the travelling friends will be back for season 12. Season 12 will be early 2020.
The announcement from the BBC points out that the consolidated audiences for the first eight episodes of series 11 averages 8.4m. They call it ‘4-screen consolidated audience’ which is a reference to BARB’s newish metric that includes TV audiences, PC and laptop audiences, tablets and smartphones. It also includes catch-up services like the BBC iPlayer where that can be worked out.
The first episode in the new series, the first ever female Doctor, hit 11 million viewers which makes it the second biggest drama in the UK and in the top 10 of all shows. Of that 11 million, nearly 4 million watched through the BBC’s on-demand service iPlayer. It’s pretty easy to see why Disney et al are getting into streaming too.
Charlotte Moore, Director of Content at the BBC, told press;
We’re delighted that the Doctor and her friends will be returning to thrill audiences in 2020. I know Chris and the whole team are already working on a whole new set of exciting adventures. In the meantime we’ve got a very special episode on New Year’s Day for everyone to enjoy.”
Chris Chibnall will also return as showrunner. He told press;
We’re off again! Well we never actually stopped – as Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor and friends have been winning the hearts of families across the nation this autumn, we’ve been busy with a whole new set of action packed adventures for the Thirteenth Doctor. We adore making this show and have been blown away by the response from audiences, so we can’t wait to bring more scares, more monsters and more Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole to BBC One. Brilliant!”
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