Now Doctor Who scares off another one million viewers

Creepy: A Silent, one of the new killer aliens on the show


It has been one of the BBC’s success stories of recent years.

As Doctor Who begins its latest series with disappointing viewing figures, however, some fans are asking if the plotlines are too scary and too complex for its largely family audience.

Early figures for the second episode of the new series starring Matt Smith as the Doctor and Karen Gillan as companion Amy Pond show that more than one million viewers turned off the show.

Menaced: Karen Gillan as Amy Pond in episode two of the hit show


It secured 5.39million viewers – down 1.01million on the series opener the week before. Overnight figures for that first episode were down by almost 1.5million on the equivalent episode last year, although ratings released yesterday showed it had a final total audience of 8.86million.

Even so, the apparent downturn in popularity has led to doubts among some avid viewers over the plotlines being pursued by executive producer and main writer Steven Moffat.

Line-up: The cast of Doctor Who from left to right. Alex Kingston as River Song, Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, Matt Smith as The Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond


Some fans also say the plots have become too complicated and involved, but others say it is important for the show to experiment.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘Doctor Who is a show for all the family. It’s well known for getting viewers hiding behind their sofas and children expect episodes to provide scares and thrills.

‘Doctor Who is never gruesome, cold-blooded or gratuitously violent. All content is carefully considered for a pre-watershed audience.’


Doctor Who - The Impossible Astronaut & Day of The Moon Trailer

First Trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Director Michael Bay has previously said that Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the third installment in the Transformers franchise, would blend "what we know as history growing up as kids with what really happened" in the space race between the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R. That promise was upheld in the teaser trailer, which showed that the mission to the moon was actually to uncover the wrecked transformer, Sentinel Prime.

More recently, Bay has said that Dark of the Moon was more "intimate" as it followed "a small group" that had "no cavalry coming." That promise is fulfilled in the sequel's first trailer and brief plot summary.

    When a mysterious event from Earth’s past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to Earth so big that the Transformers alone will not be able to save us.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon was written by Ehren Kruger and stars Shia LaBeouf and newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whiteley along with John Malkovich, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey, John Turturro, and Frances McDormand, who is revealed in the trailer.

The Kennedy’s Miniseries

The star studded TV miniseries The Kennedy’s is set to premiere tonight. The show will be aired on ReelzChannel after the original host of the show the History Channel dropped the miniseries. The show is a interpretation of the events of the Kennedy family and has come under question for some of the accuracy of its contents. The Kennedy’s miniseries will air in 8 parts on Sunday nights.

Playing John F Kennedy is Greg Kinnear. He appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show this week to talk about the miniseries which has not garnered very good reviews. Jacqueline Kennedy is played by Katie Holmes, the wife of Tom Cruise. Also featured in The Kennedy miniseries is Barry Pepper as Robert F Kennedy.

The 8 part miniseries had trouble finding a network to broadcast the episodes after the History Channel dropped it. The History Channel along with the Kennedy family felt that the historical content of The Kennedy’s may not be all true. Other networks were offered to premiere the show before the ReelzChannel finally took over. The debut of The Kennedy’s miniseries airs this evening.