#dwtwt

Chris and Jodie killed the show… But did they? Disney+ decided to sink a bunch of money into it and its now expanding and becoming a Whoniverse.

If this was any other show people would be talking about how well it must have done for studios like Disney and the BBC wanting to pour more money into it and expand the universe. Studios don’t put money into dead properties. Half the time they wont put money into a show that is critically well received so I don’t see why they would put money into a show that was ‘killed’. Do people not understand the definition of killed?

People are constantly talking about the lost of viewer numbers, usually in the over night viewing figures, never addressing the fact that the way we view content now vs 2018 is extremely different. There are so many more streaming services now then there were in 2018 and there has been a heavy shift to streaming because of the amount of content offered vs broadcast TV. And of course we also went through a global pandemic that had everyone locked in there homes moving even more people to streaming especially an older generation.

This meant, not only did people not have to watch the show when it aired because it was easier to catch up later, but people had access to more choice over all.

Next… when quoting the viewer numbers they also don’t discuss where Doctor Who sits in most watch show of the day/week/month, which is often similar to other series. All broadcast TV has had overnight viewership go down due to there being more choice since streaming took off. No one is saying other shows are dying because viewer figures are down because they aren’t, the landscape has just change and so the measure of success has changed.

Also comparing Doctor Who in 2022 when there is countless other content to watch vs 2008 when there may have been 5-10 channels is comparing apples to oranges. [side note: Someone noted there was definitely more then 10 channels in 2008, I’m in the land down under so our free to airs channels are/were 7, 9, 10, SBS and ABC, there was/is second versions of these channels who played the content a set amount of time after it air on the original channel. It would make since the UK had/has move channels then us as it’s a larger media landscape.]

The other thing I also hear a lot is that merchandise sales went down dramatically… I have never seen a source for this but if we take it on face value as a truth, could it be because again there was a GLOBAL PANDEMIC… a lot of countries went into recession, lots of people lost their employment and therefore their income, lots of people were dealing with being sick and death, and we have had massive world wide supply chain issues with everything and it wouldn’t be surprising if a lot of the merchandise is made in countries like China that just completely shut down. So the last 3 years we have gone through a major shift in income, priority and supply which is only stabilising now.

And the annoying thing is the numbers will change and these same people will be like “oh yay the show was saved” not acknowledging we are no longer in the height of a global pandemic, employment has gotten better with places reopening and so earning disposable income and the fact that they are sinking way way way more money into Doctor Who so if it didn’t do better that would actually be a problem because when you sink more money in you have to make more money back.

Chris, Jodie, 13, Yaz, Thasmin and even the stories, none of it killed the show, even if there are people who don’t like it. Most regular viewers are probably not thinking about it so deeply, or on Twitter discussing their feelings. They are having 45min-1hour of fun with the Doc and her friends.

Anyway dwtwt is super confusing.