The first episode of the new series of Doctor Who, Rose, made it into the top ten programmes for that week in Britain, getting final numbers of 10.6 million viewers. Overnight ratings for the second episode The End of the World continued to win its time-slot in Britain garnering overnight ratings of 7.3 million on April 2nd, with video-recording numbers to be added later expecting to push the numbers closer to the 8 million mark. With warmer weather and British _summer time_ hours causing total viewership for British television to decline across all channels (indeed numbers were also down for Doctor Who_s competition in that timeslot). The 7.3 million figure is a great one, and Doctor Who won its time slot by a wide margin and garnered a 36% audience share, making it the highest rated programme once again on Saturday.

In Canada, Doctor Who had strong ratings for its first episode with Tuesday_s Canadian premiere on CBC garnered 986 000 viewers. This is an excellent rating for a show on CBC, and indeed for non-American dramatic programming. Doctor Who was #2 in the 8pm-9pm timeslot for all national broadcasts and was the #4 national show in primetime on the night after Amazing Race (3.1 million) (CTV 9pm) , American Idol (2.5 million) (CTV 8pm) and Law and Order: SVU (1.3 million) (CTV 10pm).

Outpost Gallifrey: The Doctor Who News & Information Magazine