The most-watched Doctor Who episode in history is the classic serial "City of Death, Part 4" (1979), which drew a massive 16.1 million viewers due to an ITV strike causing a lack of competing shows. For the revived series, the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned" (2007) holds the top spot with 13.31 million viewers, while Jodie Whittaker's debut, "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" (2018), achieved high numbers including streaming, making it a significant modern success.
Most-watched broadcasts of all time
Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, was the site of Super Bowl LIX, the most-watched broadcast in American television history. The Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, is reported to have been watched by 125–150 million people.
Worst Doctor Who Episodes
Doctor Who Episode “Lux” Gets Lowest Ratings in Show's History. The newest episode of Doctor Who, called Lux, had very low overnight ratings. Only 1.58 million people watched it on BBC One on Saturday night, 19th April. This is the lowest number ever for the show.
Here's what the research found when it comes to a Doctor Who popularity contest.
Worst to Best: Ranking the Doctor Who Doctors
Doctor Who's best 20 modern episodes ranked
1) Blink (2007)
Sally becomes fixated with the creepy old house in her neighbourhood, and soon becomes entangled with the Weeping Angels – terrifying statues that move only when you Blink.
Deadline has analyzed official seven-day viewing figures for the first half of Season 15, and it does not make easy reading for those involved in Doctor Who. The first four episodes have averaged 3.1M viewers, which was 800,000 viewers down from last year's season, which was Gatwa's first as the Doctor.
The episode was seen by 13.8 million watching at its peak, according to consolidated ratings, when it was first broadcast on Christmas Day on BBC One. The ratings success of "Voyage of the Damned" has been partially and fully attributed to Minogue's casting in the role of Astrid.
While appearing on The One Show, via ScreenRant, he was asked about Doctor Who. Gatwa said he regretted never getting to face off against the Doctor's most iconic enemies. "I never got to fight a Dalek. A Dalek or a Cyberman," he said.
A mysterious woman appears 73 yards (67 m) away from Ruby, and remains at exactly that distance no matter where she goes. Every person who talks to the woman flees in terror and becomes hostile to Ruby. Ruby returns home and asks her mother, Carla, for help. Carla talks to the woman, but also flees, and disowns Ruby.
In order of suitability, IMO:
According to the latest RollingStone voted ranking of 'The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time' - the HBO series 'The Sopranos' is named as the greatest show of all time!
Highest rated episodes on IMDB(with votes over 10k).
David Michael Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952), nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV.
Ncuti Gatwa left Doctor Who primarily because the role was incredibly demanding, leading to physical and mental exhaustion after intense, back-to-back filming schedules for two seasons, with production taking a significant toll on his body and energy levels, making it "time" to move on despite loving the iconic job. He explained it was a draining, "go, go, go" experience with little chance to recover, causing him to feel tired and burnt out, though he hasn't ruled out a future return.
Meanwhile, the Entertainment Strategy Guy blog branded Doctor Who's debut on Disney as one of the “flops” of 2024. There was also a serious lack of awards buzz around the series, which only managed one Primetime Emmy nomination (for Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming in 2025) during its time on Disney+.
How to watch Doctor Who in release date order
The Valeyard was portrayed by actor Michael Jayston in the serials, and Jayston would go on to reprise the role in audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions.
'Doctor Who': 15 Best Episodes, Ranked
At this point in the show's history, a typical Doctor Who episode was around 25 minutes in length, give or take a few minutes, but the fifth episode of 'The Mind Robber' came in at considerably less than this at a dead 18:00.
To date, "One for the Road" remains the most watched American TV series finale following the rise of cable television, and in terms of sheer viewership numbers for non-sports programming, sits second only to the aforementioned finale of M*A*S*H.
Though The Doctor never tells River aloud that he loves her, the emotions on his face are clear whenever the two are together. Their relationship left a permanent mark on The Doctor's hearts, and that makes them Doctor Who's greatest love story.
Steven Moffat has been praised for his writing inventiveness in Doctor Who, in particular for the 2006 episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" and the 2007 episode "Blink", for which he won a BAFTA TV Award and a BAFTA Cymru Award. The episodes both won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.