Doctor Who has dominated the 2010 Portal Awards, held by Airlock Alpha part of the BlipNetwork.

Doctor Who was named Best Series/Television with 65% of the vote beating Torchwood into second place.

David Tennant was overwhelmingly voted Best Actor/television with a massive 68% of the vote, beating John Barrowman who was in second place with 10% of the vote.

Bernard Cribbins won Best Supporting Actor/Television for his portrayal of Wilfred Mott in The End of Time with 59 percent of the vote. The End of Time was itself voted Best Episode/Television.

Alex Kingston was voted Best Special Guest for her portrayal of River Song in Time of Angels.

The award for Best Actress/Television went to Eve Myles for Torchwood - Children of Earth, beating Karen Gillan into second place

The Gene Roddenberry Award for lifetime achievement was given to Russell T Davies for his work on Doctor Who and Torchwood.

This was the 11th year for the Portal Awards, which started in 1999 as the SyFy Genre Awards. An international nominating committee generated a list of five nominees for each category and readers then had 30 days to vote.

Doctor Who has won seven awards over the years, and is third to Star Trek: Voyager (18 wins) and Farscape (eight wins).

Full list of winners.

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Canada's annual science fiction awards, the Constellations, have now taken place. Doctor Who and its related shows had been nominated in a number of categories:

The Best Male Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode category was won by former Doctor David Tennant, gaining 23% of the vote for his performance in The Waters of Mars; he narrowly beat Robin Dunne from Sanctuary at 22%. Torchwood star Gareth David Lloyd had also been nominated in this category, coming in at fifth place (8%) for Torchwood: Children of Earth.

However, Doctor Who itself did not fare so well in the Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2009 category; having won the award three years running, this time it only managed third place at 17%, behind Defying Gravity(22%) and Supernatural(23%).

In other categories, actress Michelle Ryan came fourth with 13% of the vote in Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode for her role as Christina in Planet of the Dead; Torchwood: Children of Earth came third for Best Overall 2009 Science Fiction Film or Television Script (20%); and finally actress Aurora Buchanan came fifth(10%) in Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series for fan-made film Doctor Who: Victimsight.

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Torchwood: Children of Earth has won a Saturn Award for Best Presentation on Television for BBC America.

The 2010 Saturn Awards were presented by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, recognizing excellence in the genre fields of movie and television.

Torchwood: Children of Earth was transmitted on BBC America in July 2009, shortly after its UK Premier. The series was stripped Monday to Friday in a 75 minute slot.

Other nominees in the category included Doctor Who: The End of Time.

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The Doctor Who bookshelf of awards eyes up Canada next, with a number of nominations in the categories for the Constellation Awards.


Former Doctor David Tennant is up for his third award for Best Male Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode with The Waters of Mars; he previously won in the 2006 and 2007 ceremonies. This time he is up against Gareth David Lloyd for his performance as Ianto Jones in Torchwood: Children of Earth (Day Four). Other nominations include Jenson Ackles (Supernatural), John Noble (Fringe), Misha Collins (Supernatural), Robin Dunne (Sanctuary) and Ron Livingston (Defying Gravity).

The Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode sees guest star Michelle Ryan nominated for her role as Lady Christina in Planet of the Dead. This was won last year by Catherine Tate for her role as Donna Noble in Turn Left, and in 2008 by Carey Mulligan (Sally Sparrow in Blink). Michelle's competition includes Agam Darshi (Sanctuary), Alona Tal (Supernatural), Amanda Tapping (Sanctuary), Erin Karpluk (Being Erica), Laura Harris (Defying Gravity) and Lena Headley (Sarah Connor Chronicles)

Doctor Who is (of course!) up for Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2009 for the fourth time, having won this category in all three previous ceremonies. This year it is up against the likes of Sanctuary, Supernatural, Stargate Universe, Defying Gravity, Flash Forward and Being Erica. (The series also won the Outstanding Canadian Contribution to Science Fiction Film or Television at the first ceremony in 2007.)

Best Overall 2009 Science Fiction Film or Television Script sees Torchwood: Children of Earth (Day One) nomimated; last year this was won by the Doctor Who episode Silence in the Library. Torchwood is up against Stargate Universe, Defying Gravity, Being Erica, Flash Forward and District 9.

In addition, the Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series category yields an unusual entry in the form of actress Aurora Buchanan, who has been nominated for the fan-made film Doctor Who: Victimsight. This is the only fan production to make the entire award nominations, and Aurora is up against major Hollywood actresses/entries like Emma Watson (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince), Zoe Zaldana (nominated twice for both Star Trek and Avatar), and Dakota Fanning (Push).


The Constellation Awards are Canada's annual science fiction awards, and focus on rewarding excellence in science fiction film and television. This is the fourth year of the Awards, which are voted for by the Canadian public; it will take place at the Polaris 24 convention on 17th July 2010.

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The nominations for this year's BAFTA Cymru Awards have been released, and once again Doctor Who and its spinoffs are up for several awards — in some cases against themselves!

Best Drama Series/Serial for Television
Doctor Who: The End Of Time (Part One) - Tracie Simpson
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Peter Bennett

Best Children's Programme
The Sarah Jane Adventures: Prisoner of the Judoon - Nikki Smith

Best Interactive
The Sarah Jane Adventures - Richard Jenkins, Anwen Aspden

Best Sound
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Julian Howarth, Tim Ricketts, Doug Sinclair, Howard Eaves

Best Editor
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Will Oswald

Best Design
Doctor Who: The Waters Of Mars - Edward Thomas

Best Costume
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Ray Holman

Best Make-Up
Doctor Who: The End Of Time (Part One) - Barbara Southcott

Best Screenwriter
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Russell T Davies

Best Original Music Soundtrack
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Ben Foster

Best Actress
Torchwood: Children Of Earth (Day One) - Eve Myles

The BBC itself has some 31 nominations in total. You can find the full list of nominations in the categories at the BAFTA website.

The winners will be anounced at the Bafta Cymru Awards ceremony on Sunday 23rd May at the Wales Millennium Centre. There are limited tickets available to the public, enquire at the Millennium Centre (029 2063 6464).

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Every year, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films hold the Saturn Awards; the 36th award ceremony will take place on 24th June, and Doctor Who has been nominated in a number of categories.

For the Best Television Presentation award, The End of Time is up against sister show Torchwood's Children of Earth. Other contenders include the new versions of The Prisoner and V, plus Alice and The Tudors.

Best Actor in Television includes David Tennant for The End of Time; he'll be up against Josh Holloway and Matthew Fox from Lost, Stephen Moyer from True Blood, plus Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Zachary Levi (Chuck).

Best Guest Starring Role in Television sees Bernard Cribbins nominated for his portrayal of Wilf in The End of Time; others up for the award are Raymond Cruz (Breaking Bad), Michelle Forbes (True Blood), John Lithgow (Dexter), Leonard Nimoy (Fringe) and Mark Pellegrino (Lost).

In media, Best DVD Television Release sees both Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead and Torchwood: Children of Earth in the running, against Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season, Primeval, Volume 2, Lost: The Complete Fifth Season and Life on Mars: The Complete Series

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Voting is currently taking place for the Broadcasting Press Guild's 36th Annual Award Ceremony. The Doctor Who franchise has been nominated for three awards this year, with David Tennant nominated for Best Actor (Doctor Who/Hamlet), Eve Myles nominated for Best Actress (Torchwood/Framed), and finally Russell T Davies nominated for Best Writer (Doctor Who/Torchwood). The winners are chosen by members of the Guild, and takes place between the 11th and 18th February.

The Television and Radio Industries Club hold their annual TRIC Awards on 9th March at the Grosvenor House, London; Doctor Who has been nominated in the "TV Drama Programme" category, up against Doc Martin and Shameless. Winners are chosen by members of the industry.

The revived series of Doctor Who has yet to win an award from either organisation, though actress Billie Piper won the "New TV Talent" category at TRIC's 2006 ceremony.


New assistant Karen Gillan has been nominated for "Best New Scottish Actor/Actress" at the second Scottish Variety Awards, taking place at the Glasgow Crowne Plaze Hotel on 26th March.


The SFX Weekender convention took place over the weekend, and Doctor Who fared well in the various sci-fi categories: Best Actor went to David Tennant, Best Actress to Eve Myles, Best Television Episode was won by Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Five, and Best Collectable to the Journal of Impossible Things. In the SFX Choice Awards, new head writer Steven Moffat was the "Hope for the Future", whilst character Ianto Jones was chosen as "Cult Hero". Russell T. Davies was present to accept the actor and episode awards, and you can read his speeches on the SFX website. The full awards will feature in a forthcoming issue of SFX Magazine.

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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Day One of Torchwood: Children of Earth delivered a record audience for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's digital channel ABC2. The first episode had 190,000 viewers, including time-shifted viewers.

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In the run up to The End of Time on Christmas Day, the Doctor Who repeats on BBC Three have been scoring high ratings. Tuesday's showing of The Next Doctor had 0.54 million watching, making it the tenth highest-rated multichannel programme for the day. Wednesday's repeat of Planet of the Dead did even better, with 0.69 million watching and was the second highest-rated multichannel programme of the day. The 7pm slot has no inheritance, being the first programme on BBC Three for the day, meaning the audience steadily rose throughout the episode with 850,000 watching by the end.

Meanwhile the BBC has revealed that Planet of the Dead was the ninth most-watched programme of the year on the BBC iPlayer, with 811,800 requests. Torchwood: Children of Earth Part 1 was thirteenth with 559,800 requests. The top programme was Top Gear. The BBC iPlayer has its second birthday on Christmas Day, and is now available on more than 20 different devices.

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Torchwood: Children of Earth comes to Australia in January, with the series making its debut on ABC2 on Friday 8th January 2010.

Unlike its original showing in the UK the series will be shown on a weekly basis at 8.30pm.

Children of Earth was first shown in Australia on UKTV in July, the same month as it recieved its premier in the UK and North America.

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TV Tonight blog reports The Waters of Mars will make its Australian debut on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during the week beginning Sunday 6 December 2009 on ABC1. This follows the ABC 'fast-tracking' the last two Doctor Who specials broadcast in the UK.

TV Tonight also reports that Torchwood: Children of Earth will make its Australian free-to-air debut during the week beginning Sunday 3 January 2010 on ABC2.

Update 8 Nov: TV Tonight has since confirmed that 'The Waters of Mars' will indeed debut on ABC1 on Sunday 6 December 2009 at 7.30pm.

Thanks to TV Tonight.

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BBC America has announced in a press release that Torchwood: Children of Earth and Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead helped the cable channel to its best ratings week:

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.

The press release also confirms that BBC America has acquired the next season of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith as the Doctor. The series will air on BBC America in "Q2, 2010 following soon after its UK premiere"; "Q2" refers to the second quarter of the year, or April, May and March.

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Final figures released by BARB put all five episodes of Torchwood – Children of Earth in the top twenty programmes of the week.

The figures include those who record the programme and watch it within one week. The highest charting episode was Day Four, which, with 6.76 million watching, was the 11th most watched programme of the week. If figures for the HD showing were included in the BBC1 figures, then Torchwood would have had a top ten place, with episode four beating Emmerdale. All five episodes achieved over 6 million viewers.

The series dominated the chart for the BBC HD channel with the five episodes of Torchwood taking the top eight places. Not only did the original five showings take the top five places, but the midnight repeats took places 6, 7 and 8.

The BBC Three repeats also fared well with all five episodes appearing in the top ten programmes for the week. All episodes had a final rating over double that of the initial overnight figure.

Top Programmes week ending 12 July 2009

1 CORONATION STREET (MON 2028) – 9.52 – ITV1
2 CORONATION STREET (MON 1932) – 9.41 – ITV1
3 CORONATION STREET (WED 1929) – 8.94 – ITV1
4 EASTENDERS (MON 1959) – 8.85 – BBC1
5 CORONATION STREET (FRI 1932) – 8.37 – ITV1
6 CORONATION STREET (FRI 2028) – 8.11 – ITV1
7 EASTENDERS (FRI 2000) – 7.88 – BBC1
8 EASTENDERS (THU 1928) – 7.66 – BBC1
9 TOP GEAR (SUN 2001) – 6.80 – BBC2
10 EMMERDALE (MON 1901) – 6.77 – ITV1
11 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (THU 2059) – 6.76 – BBC1
12 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (FRI 2100) – 6.58 – BBC1
13 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (MON 2100) – 6.47 – BBC1
14 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (WED 2100) – 6.40 – BBC1
15 CASUALTY (SAT 2051) – 6.32 – BBC1
16 EMMERDALE (WED 1859) – 6.17 – ITV1
17 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (TUE 2100) – 6.14 –BBC1
18 EMMERDALE (THU 1902) – 6.05 – ITV1
19 EMMERDALE (FRI 1901) – 5.90 – ITV1
20 CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF (THU 2000) – 5.60 – BBC1

Source BARB

Top BBC HD Programmes week ending 12 July 2009

1 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Wed 21:00) 160
2 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Fri 21:01) 151
3 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Mon 21:01) 129
4 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Thu 21:00) 127
5 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Tue 21:02) 112
6 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Wed 24:04) 78
7 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Fri 24:08) 63
8 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Thu 24:01) 61
9 THAT MITCHELL AND WEBB LOOK (Thu 22:33) 52
10 MICHAEL MCINTYRE'S COMEDY ROADSHOW (Sat 21:42) 51

Source BARB

Top BBC Three Programmes week ending 12 July 2009

1 EASTENDERS (Tue 22:01) 1,907
2 EASTENDERS (Thu 22:01) 953
3 EASTENDERS (Mon 22:01) 883
4 FAMILY GUY (Sun 22:00) 878
5 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Tue 23:48) 852
6 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Fri 24:17) 756
7 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Thu 23:47) 738
8 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Wed 24:18) 734
9 TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH (Mon 23:48) 717
10 EASTENDERS (Fri 22:02) 646

Source BARB

Meanwhile, in the United States, Multichannel News reports that the premiere episode of "Children of Earth" was watched by 1.4 million viewers on Monday, the highest ratings of any programme on BBC America.

(Thanks to poster "InigoMontoya" from Gallifrey Base.)

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Torchwood: Children of Earth comes to North America this week, with the series being broadcast in Canada and the United States.

BBC America will be screening the series at 9pm Eastern time from Monday to Friday. The series has been given a 75 minute slot, meaning American viewers will see the full version of the episodes. The 10pm showing of BBC World News America has been shortened to accommodate the series. As well as the main episodes, BBC America will be showing a number of documentaries going behind the scenes of Torchwood. Each episode will be repeated several times throughout the day.

In Canada, The Space Channel, will be broadcasting the series at 10pm Eastern time, also in a 75 minute slot. The series is repeated at 2.15am the following day.

In addition Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead comes to Canada on Saturday, with The Space Channel broadcasting the episode at 9pm Eastern, followed by a repeat of The Next Doctor.

Planet of the Dead also comes to BBC America on Sunday, showing at 8pm ET.

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Torchwood: Children of Earth finished its impressive run on BBC One with an audience of 5.8 million viewers according to unofficial overnight figures. Torchwood was the fourth most watched programme of the day with a share of 26.7%. It rated higher than Emmerdale and was beaten by EastEnders and Coronation Street.

With just sunday's figures to come, all five episodes of Torchwood are in the top twenty for the week.

Another 95,000 watched the episode in HD on BBC HD and 333,000 watched the late night repeat on BBC Three, the highest rating for the repeat all week. During the BBC Three showing, the channel had over twice as many viewers as its nearest rival.
The Appreciation Index for day four on BBC One was an amazing 91 and day five received an AI figure of 90.

TORCHWOOD UK OVERNIGHT RATINGS

Children of Earth	BBC One	BBC HD	BBC Three	iPlayer	AI
Day One	5.9 million - 25.8% share	97,000	214,000	tbc	88
Day Two	5.6 million - 24.0% share	82,000	282,000	tbc	90
Day Three	5.9 million - 27.1% share	105,000	225,000	tbc	90
Day Four	6.2 million - 27.0% share	82,000	232,000	tbc	91
Day Five	5.8 million -26.7% share	95,000	333,000	tbc	90
Overnight figures do not include those who record the programme and watch it on a subsequent day. Final figures, including those who timeshift the programme will be released by BARB in 10 days time.

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Torchwood: Children of Earth slipped ahead of Emmerdale on Thursday night with unofficial overnight figures showing part Four was watched by 6.2 million viewers, the highest rating of the week so far. Torchwood was the second most watched programme of the day with the share remaining steady at 27.0%. It gave BBC One more than double the audience of ITV for the duration of the programme.

A further 82,000 watched in HD on the BBC HD channel, and 232,000 watched the repeat on BBC Three.

The Appreciation Index for Part Three was 90, by far the highest score for the day.

The South Wales Echo, The Stage and Broadcast have all published articles reflecting the success of Torchwood.

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Torchwood: Children of Earth continued its strong run on BBC One, with part three watched by 5.9 million viewers, making it the the third most watched programme of the day. The share was 27.1%.

An average of 105,000 also watched the programme on BBC HD, with and additional 225,000 watching the late night repeat on BBC Three. If these figures are added to the BBC One showing, then the programme overtakes Emmerdale to become the second most watched of the day.

The Appreciation Index for Episode Two was an amazing 90. The Appreciation Index, or AI, is a measure of how much the audience liked the programme. It is a score out of 100, based on responses from a carefully selected panel. The average score for drama on BBC1 and ITV1 is 77. A score in excess of 80 is regarded as good, in excess of 85 is excellent and anything above 90 is outstanding. A score below 60 is poor.

Final figures will be available in two weeks time.

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Part Two of Torchwood: Children of Earth was watched by 5.6 million viewers, making it the the most watched programme of the day on British television by over a million viewers. The programme beat Eastenders and Emmerdale, with both soaps losing ratings to the Michael Jackson Memorial on BBC 2.

The programme audience once more grew throughout the hour and the programme got an average 24% share of the total audience.

An additional 82,000 people watched the programme in HD on the BBC HD channel.

The BBC Three repeat at 2345 was watched by 282,000 viewers, a 5.8% share.

The Appreciation Index for Episode One was 88, one of the highest scores for the day.

Final figures will be available in two weeks time.

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Torchwood: Children of Earth was watched by 5.9 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures. The programme was the 5th most watched programme of the day and the 2nd highest rated on BBC1, being beaten by the three main soaps. The programme won its timeslot with an audience share of 25.8%.

An additional 97,000 people watched the programme in HD on the BBC HD channel.

The BBC Three repeat at 2345 was watched by 214,000 viewers, a 3.9% share.

Final figures will be available in two weeks time.

Torchwood continues Tuesday evening on BBC1.

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The new edition of the Radio Times has been published in the UK, and features a foldout cover for Torchwood: Children of Earth. The magazine includes a four-page article on the five-part story, including a "script-to-screen" section.

There is also an interview with John Barrowman, in which he criticises the BBC for cutting the series to five episodes following its move to BBC1.

Barrowman said: "We were the most successful show on BBC3, ever. We moved to BBC2 because the ratings were so good, the ratings were great again and we were beating shows that had been on BBC2 for a long time. The decision was made to go to BBC1, and then we were cut. From 13 episodes down to five.

"The five episodes, the miniseries as I call it, are incredible, I have no doubt about that, but personally, I felt like we were being punished. Other shows move from BBC3 and 2 to 1, and they don't get cut. So why are we? It felt like every time we moved we had to prove ourselves."

A BBC spokesman has denied Torchwood was being "punished", saying they wanted to create an "event" to launch the show on BBC1, with the new series stripped across one week.

Radio Times editor Gill Hudson:

"They are faced with their fiercest threat to date – one which throws the future of Torchwood and the entire human race spiralling into danger. Do they stand a chance of saving mankind?" Even if you've never seen Torchwood in your life, the brief description from its official website should at least make it clear that Last of the Summer Wine this is not.

"But it will be a new experience for die-hard fans, too: as well as moving to primetime BBC1 from BBC2, it's also switched from the usual 13-part weekly format to five parts to be run on consecutive nights.

"It's a trick that's been used to good effect before – last year's Criminal Justice and the recent Occupation, for example – and it's something we can expect more of. As increasing numbers of us watch what we like, when we like, 'event TV' will be needed to ensure we keep having compelling reasons to tune in on particular nights.

Not that Torchwood star John Barrowman is entirely happy. Find out why – and what it takes to produce a a drama like this – on page 14."

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