According to the outlet, the first four episodes of the current season averaged 2.9 million viewers, which is a million viewers down from the previous season. And that season—Gatwa’s first—was down over a million viewers from the previous one. Jodie Whitaker’s final season, pre-Disney partnership, averaged about five million viewers in its first four episodes. (These numbers are from the broadcasts in the U.K., not Disney+, which, like other streamers, keeps its viewership stats opaque.)
Deadline notes that it drew these figures from seven-day viewing, so it’s not necessarily the full picture (broadcasters and streamers prefer to use 28-day viewership). However, even Davies admitted outright after the first Disney+ season that the show was “not doing that well in the ratings, but it is doing phenomenally well with the younger audience that we wanted.” The bottom line is, the current iteration of the show is not the unqualified success that Disney probably wanted when it co-signed an established property with a cult following.
A recent report from U.K. tabloid The Mirror suggested the show could very well continue on the BBC without the Disney partnership. Davies has even said that he and his writers have begun writing scripts and planning for future seasons. However, the broadcaster has declined to comment on the future of the program. Amid chatter that Gatwa would exit the show after this season, the BBC would only say that the actor had not been fired. (Gatwa hasn’t said anything publicly about all the rumors.) In a statement, a BBC spokesperson told Deadline, “As we have previously stated, the decision on Season [16] will be made after Season [15] airs and any other claims are just pure speculation. The deal with Disney+ was for 26 episodes—and we still have an entire spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea, to air. And as for the rest, we never comment on the Doctor and future storylines.”
