BBC America Acquires Season Five of "Doctor Who," Touts "Torchwood" Ratings
BBC America has today announced that it has committed to airing the upcoming fifth season of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith as the Doctor.Season Five of Doctor Who, which has Smith assuming the mantle of the time-traveling Doctor from outbound series star David Tennant, is set to air in the second quarter of 2010 and BBC America has said that the US broadcast will be "following soon after its UK premiere."
No clarification yet as to how close the window will be between the US and UK transmissions of Doctor Who's fifth season, which sees Jekyll's Steven Moffat take over as head writer/executive producer.
The news was announced in a press release this morning announcing the ratings success of five-episode Torchwood: Children of Earth, which lured a cumulative audience of 3.3 million viewers, propelling the digital cabler to its best week ever.
The full press release from BBC America, announcing the Torchwood ratings and the digital cabler's acquisition of Season Five of Doctor Who, can be found below.
BBC AMERICA's Best Week Ever - 3.3 Million Tune in to Torchwood
BBC AMERICA also announces the U.S. premiere of the new Doctor Who series starring Matt Smith
NEW YORK, Aug. 10 -- BBC AMERICA's recent week of sci-fi gave the channel its best week ever. The week of July 20 saw the U.S. premiere of three key sci-fi titles - the five night miniseries Torchwood: Children of Earth, the first of four Doctor Who specials starring David Tennant, Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead and the latest buzz show from the UK Being Human.
Torchwood: Children of Earth is BBC AMERICA's most successful series ever, reaching 3.3m in Live+SD across the week. It delivered an average audience of 705,000 viewers per episode, with Friday's finale attracting 847,000, the largest average audience in the channel's history. Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead also performed strongly with 657,000 viewers in Live+SD.
In the Monday-Friday, 9-10P hour among A25-54, BBC AMERICA ranked #13 in coverage rating (.51) and #22 in delivery (380k) among the 75 Nielsen-rated ad supported cable networks. For the week, July 20, in the 9-10P hour, the channel - available in 64 million homes - outperformed, in Live+SD A25-54 delivery several nets with significantly higher distribution, such as MSNBC, Animal Planet, Bravo, BET, Travel, Oxygen, Hallmark, TV Land, Soap, MTV, E!, WE, and Headline News.
Following on the strong ratings, critical acclaim and rapturous reception at San Diego's Comic-Con for all three sci-fi titles - including a standing ovation for Doctor Who's David Tennant - BBC AMERICA has announced the acquisition of the new season of Doctor Who starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. Shot in HD, the U.S. premiere season of 13 episodes, will air Q2, 2010 following soon after its UK premiere.
The lead writer is Steven Moffat (Jekyll, Coupling) with Executive Producers Piers Wenger (Ballet Shoes), Beth Willis (Ashes to Ashes) and Steven Moffat. It is a BBC Wales production for BBC ONE and distributed by BBC Worldwide.
BBC AMERICA brings audiences a new generation of award-winning television featuring news with a uniquely global perspective, provocative dramas, razor-sharp comedies and life-changing makeovers. BBC AMERICA pushes the boundaries to deliver high quality, highly addictive and eminently watchable programming to viewers who demand more. It is available on digital cable and satellite TV in more than 64 million homes.