BBC America’s ‘DOCTOR WHO’ Featuring the Series’ First Woman Doctor, Regenerated with 48% Growth Over Other Season Premieres!

BBC AMERICA’S new season of Doctor Who, featuring Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth and first female Doctor, drew 1.4 million viewers and 658,000 adults ages 25-54 in its 1:45 pm global simulcast premiere. Doctor Who now ranks as the fastest-growing drama on TV this year with a +48% increase over the previous season premiere in Nielsen live/same day ratings. The season opener ranked as the #1 program in its timeslot across all of cable in the target demos and was the #1 most searched program and #1 most talked about program on social media with 93% positive sentiment.

If that TV jargon was a little too technical, let’s break it down this way: Whittaker’s premiere more than doubled Peter Capaldi’s final episode, while exceeding the debuts of David Tennant and Matt Smith. Including the primetime special and same-day encores, the new season premiere episode has already grossed over 2.6 million total viewers and 1.2 million adults – the highest sampling for a Doctor Who season premiere since the series reboot over a decade ago.

“To see such growth for a 55-year-old franchise is rather unusual and entirely brilliant,” said BBC America President and GM Sarah Barnett in a press release.

Were you one of the millions of viewers who tuned into the new season of Doctor Who? If so, what did you think? Let us know in the comments below!

Doctor Who airs Sundays at 8 pm on BBC America. Missed Episode 1? It is available now on VOD, BBC AMERICA app, and BBC America.