Christmas Day: a time of festive presents, festive food, and festive telly!
For us, of course, the placement of the annual
Doctor Who Christmas Special in the schedules is always eagerly anticipated, with this year's episode slotted into the late afternoon/early evening slot of
5:45pm. Previous years have seen it as early as 5:15pm last year to 7:30pm in 2013, but this year it is (hopefully!) bolstered by two of the BBC's other highest rated programmes,
The Great British Bake-Off beforehand and
Strictly Come Dancing afterwards.
In terms of direct competition, ITV is serving up its traditional slice of country life in
Emmerdale, and Sky One is premiering its heavily trailed
The Last Dragonslayer; on other channels BBC2 has the 1976
Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show (5:40pm), Channel 4 has
We're Going On A Bear Hunt and the film
Home Alone (from 6pm), Channel 5 has
Singin' in the Rain and then a repeat of
Britain's Favourite Christmas Songs (from 6:15pm).
As of today, the odds of
Doctor Who making the top spot sits at 22/1; unsurprisingly,
Mrs Brown's Boys leads the way, being it has been the most popular show three out of the last four years (only beaten into second place last year by the finale of
Downton Abbey!).
BBC1 ITV
3:00pm 16/1 The Queen 40/1 The Queen
3:10pm 9/1 Frozen 46/1 The Lion King
4:45pm 5/1 The Great Christmas Bake Off
4:55pm ITV News
5:15pm 66/1 You've Been Framed
5:45pm 22/1 Doctor Who 60/1 Emmerdale
6:45pm 2/1 Strictly Come Dancing 50/1 For the Love of Dogs
7:45pm ITV News
8:00pm 6/1 Call the Midwife 25/1 Coronation Street
9:00pm 25/1 Maigret's Dead Man
9:30pm 8/1 Eastenders
10:30pm 2/1 Mrs Brown's Boys
11:00pm 100/1 The Best of Tracey Ullman's Show 100/1 Love Actually
Predict the Ratings Competition
It's also time for our 'legendary'
Predict the Ratings competition, which this year will give readers the chance to win
The Return of Doctor Mysterio on DVD/Bluray upon its release, plus a copy of the BBC Book
The Whoniverse by Justin Richards and George Mann.
As always, the aim is to predict the
final consolidated viewing figure for
The Return of Doctor Mysterio as reported by
BARB, to the nearest 10,000 viewers (i.e. two decimal places). In addition, we'd like you to predict
Doctor Who's position in the weekly chart (which will be used in the case of a tie-break).
The ratings and positions for 2014 and 2015 are presented here for comparison - recent years have seen a decline in television viewing over Christmas Day, with none of the programmes achieving the heady heights of several years ago.
To enter our competition, please send the following details to
comp-ratings@doctorwhonews.net:
- Your name and preferred email address
- Your country of entry (full details will be requested only if you are the winner)
- Your guess at the final viewing figure to the nearest 10,000 (eg.9.99m)
- Your guess at the final position in the chart (eg. 1st) - this will only be used in the event of a tie-break
Terms and Conditions:
- The competition closes at 08:30 GMT, 26th December 2016.
- Only one entry will be accepted per person.
- The competition is open worldwide.
- BARB final figures are expected in early 2016; we will contact the winner once they have been published.
Superheroes around the World unite...
Of course it isn't just the United Kingdom that will enjoy the Doctor's latest adventure this festive period, as the episode will be broadcast in a number of countries within a couple of days of the British premiere:
As well as television,
The Return of Doctor Mysterio will also get big screen outings in Australia (
26th December), New Zealand (
26th December), Denmark (
26th and
28th December), Canada (
26th and
28th December), and the United States (
27th and
29th December).
Various channels will celebrate the series during the next couple of weeks. BBC America kick off a mammoth repeat run dominating the channel from Tuesday 20th December, showing the majority of episodes since David Tennant took over the role in the lead up to the Christmas Special (and also including the premiere broadcast of
The Power of the Daleks in colour on Christmas Day!). On Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, BBC Prime in Latin America will show the two series starring Peter Capaldi, whilst Prime in New Zealand repeat the most recent series. On Christmas Day, SPACE in Canada will show preceeding Christmas adventures. BBC HD in Poland doesn't have
Mysterio scheduled for the immediate future, but will be running through the Doctor's regular adventures from
Rose on the 23rd December through to the New Year.
Readers can always keep up with the ongoing adventures of the Doctor (and pals!) via
This Week in Doctor Who.
Fathom Events have announced a special theatrical outing for the Tenth Doctor's finale, The End Of Time, which itself celebrates its tenth anniversary this Christmas.
Canada joins Australia and the United States as Cineplex Cinemas have announced that they will show The Return of Doctor Mysterio in selected cinemas across the country on both the 26th and 28th December 2016.
BBC Worldwide North America and Fathom Events have announced that they plan to show this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, 
