Doctor Who loses 2.6 million viewers but still #1
4 April 2004

As expected, Doctor Who's second episode saw a ratings decline, with The End of the World watched by 2.6 million fewer viewers than Rose.

Overnight figures give the episode 7.2 million viewers, a 36% share of the audience, down from the 43% acheived by the season opener.

Naturally many newspapers have blamed the announcement that Christopher Eccleston is leaving the show for the ratings fall, but does not appear to have had much, if any, actual impact on the viewing figures. It is more likely that the better weather last Saturday compared with Easter Saturday accounts for the show's drop in ratings, as overall television viewing for the timeslot was down.

While the ratings for Who were down, it was still comfortably ahead of ITV1 rival Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, which was also down, with overnight figures of just 6 million viewers.

With the announcement of the new Doctor almost certainly imminent, Who should hopefully be able to hold onto its audience for the next couple of episodes, with the return of the Daleks likely to provide an audience bounce early next month.