We’re midway through January, but it’s never too late to remember the glories of Christmas 2016 – and in particular, The Return of Doctor Mysterio.
Written by Steven Moffat, and directed by Ed Bazalgette, the episode starred Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor alongside Matt Lucas’ Nardole, reprising his role from The Husbands of River Song after a bit of beheading.
So how did the ratings fare compared to 2015’s Christmas special?
While the overnight ratings for The Return of Doctor Mysterio was 5.68 million, 0.09 million behind The Husbands of River Song‘s 5.77 million, the overalls for 2016’s special jumped ahead at 7.83 million, 0.14 million, more than last year’s outing of 7.69 million. These figures don’t take views on iPlayer into account, but do include those watching on BBC One HD.
This ranks Doctor Mysterio as (appropriately enough) the 12th most watched out of all 14 Who Christmas specials (including The Feast of Steven, the First Doctor interlude in The Daleks’ Master Plan). The most-watched remains Voyage of the Damned (2007), with 13.31 million.
The special also received 1.7 million viewers on BBCA, was BBC America’s top telecast of the year across all key demographics, and was the most talked about Christmas day program on Twitter and Facebook. This episode’s Audience Appreciation Index (AI) score tied with last year’s special and Last Christmas (2014), all receiving a score of 82.
The most-watched show of the week ending with 25th December was Call the Midwife with 9.21m, followed by Mrs Brown’s Boys (8.98m), and Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special (8.94m).
Doctor Who, then, did admirably well!