UK Ratings, AI Update

According to unofficial overnight figures, Saturday's episode on BBC One,Rise of the Cybermen was watched by an average audience of 8.6m, an audience share of 39.7% and comfortably ahead of the 3m viewers for the ITV1 competition, another showing of The X Men. Beginning 23 minutes later than scheduled, it was the highest-rated show of the day and looks likely to appear in the week's top ten, behind Coronation Street and EastEnders. The five-minute breakdowns for the evening show the effects of the overrunning football match earlier in the day, with most programmes gaining viewers around the time that the next programme was due to start - Strictly Dance Fever ended at 7.20 with an audience of 7.61m, which Rise of the Cybermen gradually increased to a peak of 9.65m in its own last few minutes; that audience, however, immediately dropped to 6.51m when Doctor Who finished. The 9.65m peak is far short of the 11.3m that were watching the climax of the FA Cup Final - that match's average figure of 6.55m takes into account the entire Match of the Day programme that ran from 1pm, not just the match itself, although a proportion of the 11 million viewers had presumably switched on for the scheduled evening news. Rise of the Cybermen was watched by 0.6m more people than Father's Day on the same weekend in 2005, continuing Series Two's improved performance against last year's ratings success.

The audience Appreciation Index (AI) for the episode was 86. This is not only the highest of the second series, it is also among the highest for Doctor Who since the series return - only The Parting of the Ways (89) scored higher.

Meanwhile, Saturday's edition of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC Three was the top-rated multichannel programme of Saturday, with an audience of 712,500 (4% audience share). Sunday's repeat of Rise of the Cybermen on BBC Three was watched by a further 624,900 viewers (3.9% audience share), peaking at 758,000 viewers in its last five minutes, and was third-placed in the multichannel top ten for the day, while Sunday's Confidentialrepeat scored 331,100 viewers (1.9% audience share). (Thanks to 'Shaun Lyon,' Andy Parish)