Doctor Who Magazine has confirmed that this year's Christmas Special of Doctor Who will be shown on New Year's Day 2019.

The change is a radical change for the series which has been part of the Christmas Day schedule since the series returned in 2005. The series peaked in 2007 when Kylie Minogue joined the Tenth Doctor in Voyage of the Damned watched by 13.3 million viewers. Last year's Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time, marking the departure of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, was watched by 7.92 million.

The episode to be shown on New Year's Day will mark the end of Jodie Whittaker's first season as The Doctor. The last episode to be shown on New Year's Day was the second part of The End of Time in 2010 where it had 12.27 million viewers.

A number of new publicity images to promote this week's episode of Doctor Who, The Tsuranga Conundrum

Episode 5 Trailer | The Tsuranga Conundrum | Doctor Who

This episode will debut on BBC One at 7.00pm.

Main Broadcast Details
United Kingdom	BBC One	Sunday 4th November	7.00pm BST
United States of America	BBC America	Sunday 4th November	8.00pm EDT
Canada	SPACE	Sunday 4th November	8.00pm EDT
Australia	ABC	Monday 5th November	6.00pm AEST

Full listings here

The BBC has released details of Doctor Who Episodes Five and Six

Press reaction to the new season of Doctor Who is overwhelmingly positive with Jodie Whittaker winning many plaudits for her first full episode as the Thirteenth Doctor

The Independent led the praise for the lead actress's performance. " After all the hype, hyperbole and inevitable internet hate, she acquits herself wonderfully in her full-length debut. Whittaker is a force of breezy nature – rambunctious, quirky but with a reassuringly familiar aura of Gallifreyan uncanniness."

The Guardian loved the interaction between the main characters. "The new Doctor and her team – 19-year-old Ryan, his old schoolmate turned police probationer Yasmin, and Ryan’s step-grandfather Graham (Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill and Bradley Walsh respectively) – have heart and soul, and are set against a comforting background of West Yorkshire women – especially Ryan’s nan – talking common sense as alien life and electrical pulses erupt around them."

Whittaker was also praised by the Telegraph who said the actress shined in a flawed but fun Doctor Who debut. "There has been a depressingly predictable knee-jerk backlash to a time-travelling, body-regenerating extraterrestrial with two hearts having the temerity to be female but this debut adventure barrelled straight past such quibbles. After mere minutes of the Doctor’s arrival – crashing through the roof of a train in Sheffield, having fallen from the Tardis at the climax of the Christmas special – you stopped noticing"

Digital Spy was sure Jodie Whittaker's Doctor is going to be everybody's new hero, and noted how her sex is irrelevant. "For all the buzz, positive and negative, that surrounded Whittaker's casting as the first female Doctor, what her first few scenes make abundantly clear is how unimportant the character's gender really is. It's completely and utterly incidental, a point which 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth' makes not through words – the transition from old to new is discussed no more here than it has been in previous Doctor's debuts – but through actions."

Den of Geek says series 11 premiere finds Doctor Who in rude health. "Whittaker certainly makes an impact in her opening scene - quite literally, as she falls through the roof of the train and meets her new companions. The script cleverly wastes no time in having her do some proper ‘Doctor business’ - fending off an alien, casually dismissing a death in favour of the mystery at hand and persuading police officer Yas not to call for reinforcements. Whittaker shines pretty quickly in these scenes, and has every bit of the quiet intensity of her predecessors."

Variety felt the episode fulfilled a difficult brief. "Striking the right balance has been a tall order for any new Doctor and showrunner to take on, as several pairs have done over the last decade, but the level of difficulty this particular team had to master is arguably the highest yet. That’s why it’s so impressive that “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” is, for the most part, an extremely typical episode of “Doctor Who."

NPR loved the characterisation of The Doctor "With her rich Northern accent (the actress was born in Yorkshire), Whittaker's Doctor isn't posh or effete — no bow ties or fezzes for her. Instead, she radiates pragmatism (if pragmatism is a thing that can radiate) and a decidedly middle-class, we're-all-in-this-together enthusiasm."

Finally, the Los Angeles Times says Doctor Who returns in thrilling fashion. "The new Doctor has both authority and energy; she is playful yet mature, a little mad but not manic, funny and agile and perhaps will turn out a shade less judgmental than some of her predecessors. Chibnall has given Whittaker a lighter brief: “I’m the Doctor,” she declares, “sorting out fair play throughout the universe.” And later, in that soft Yorkshire accent, “Sometimes I see things that need fixin’ and do what I can.”

The Doctor Who News review can be found on our reviews site.

The BBC has confirmed that Doctor Who will debut in the UK at 6.45pm on Sunday 7th October.

The first episode of the new series, The Woman Who Fell To Earth, will run from 6.45pm-7.45pm on BBC One, bringing the series to the heart of Sunday evening.

Doctor Who will air directly after Countryfile, which is watched by between 4 and 6 million viewers each week. It will be followed by Strictly Come Dancing - The Results where the public voting for the BBC One dance show will be revealed to the public.

ITV will be offering a game show in opposition, 5 Gold Rings presented by Philip Schofield. BBC Two will be showing King Arthur's Britain: The Truth Unearthed a new documentary delving into the murky historical period of the Arthurian legends, while on Channel 4 viewers can enjoy Phil Spencer's Stately Homes, where the property expert returns to look round more of Britain's stately homes, beginning with Longleat House in Wiltshire. Channel 5 is showing the 2013 feature film Jack the Giant Slayer.

BBC America has confirmed the episode will be simulcast with UK showing, making a transmission time of 1.45pm ET

The BBC has confirmed that the new series of Doctor Who will debut in the UK and the US on Sunday 7th October.

The move to Sunday evenings is a radical change for the series, which has been seen in the UK on Saturday nights since its return in 2005. The only previous times the series has been shown on a Sunday was for three episodes shown on Christmas Day and the autumn special, The Waters of Mars.

The switch means that Doctor Who will avoid direct competition with the ITV talent show The X Factor. No timeslot has been confirmed but the series is likely to be shown early evening along with the Strictly Come Dancing Results show.

BBC America has confirmed the first episode will be screened in the United States at the same time it is shown in the UK, meaning the series will debut in the early afternoon. The rest of the series will be seen in the usual prime-time evening slot.

Chris Chibnall, Showrunner said Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content said: Showrunner Chris Chibnall has written the first episode of the brand new series which is titled “The Woman Who Fell to Earth”.

TVNZ have announced that they have the rights to show the new series of Doctor Who in New Zealand when it premieres later this year. The announcement was heralded by the 40 second teaser trailer being broadcast simultaneously across TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2 and DUKE in the lead in to the evening’s 6pm programming.



TVNZ Director of Content, Cate Slater, said:

Irene Read, Director of Content Sales for BBC Studios in Australia and New Zealand, says:

The series is expected to air in New Zealand within the same week as the UK, but will be streamed by the channel via TVNZ OnDemand immediately following the UK broadcast.


TVNZ was the first channel to broadcast Doctor Who outside of the United Kingdom, airing An Unearthly Child in September 1964. finally ending its original association with the show with the transmission of The TV Movie in 1999. Since the show's return in 2005 it has been broadcast by Prime.

The BBC has announced it is making every episode of Doctor Who made since 2005 available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Ahead of Jodie Whittaker taking up the mantle of the Thirteenth Doctor, all ten series will be available to watch as box sets, plus every special from the past 13 years of the Doctor’s adventures, including mini-episode The Night of the Doctor.

Fans can take the TARDIS back to 2005 to enjoy every moment from Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor first meeting Rose right up to Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor’s final moments in last Christmas’s Twice Upon A Time.

The series has been one of the BBC’s biggest successes since returning in 2005, and has seen an extraordinary number of big names appear on the show. In addition to Eccleston and Capaldi, David Tennant and Matt Smith both had star-making turns as the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor respectively, and big-name guest stars include Carey Mulligan, Simon Pegg, Derek Jacobi, Kylie Minogue, Andrew Garfield, Felicity Jones and Bill Nighy.

The inituative followes recent trials where former series of Our Girl and The Bridge were brought back to BBC iPlayer before the new series aired. The BBC says the returning series of Doctor Who will help to ensure BBC iPlayer is a must-visit destination for viewers this summer.

Dan McGolpin, controller of programming for the BBC, said

Twice Upon A Time averaged 378,000 viewers in the five major Australian capital cities. It was ABC TV's highest rating drama of the day and the nineteenth highest rating program of the day overall (The Ashes and Big Bash cricket, the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, news and current affairs programs taking 14 of the top 20 rating programs on Boxing Day). These ratings do not include regional or time-shifted viewers.

This year sees Doctor Who premiere at 5:30pm on BBC1, with competition for the time slot coming in the form of Emmerdale on ITV and The Morecambe and Wise 1977 Christmas Show on BBC2: if you feel a little deja-vu it's understandable as these were up against Doctor Who last year - and Channel 4 is even showing the same film, Home Alone, on Channel 4!

In fact, looking at this year's Christmas line-up in the evening, you might think you are watching last year, as there is little difference between this year's and last year's offerings on the main two UK channels - both BBC1 and ITV's evening line-up is nigh-on identical apart from broadcast time, with just the 9:00pm ITV drama slot being Jenna Coleman's Victoria this time around.

The bookies' favourite is also familiar, with Strictly Come Dancing once again taking the top slot; however, second place belongs firmly to the departure of Peter Capaldi, with Doctor Who at 4/1. Bake Off is also in the 'mix', though this time at prime-time on Channel 4.

            BBC1                        ITV                           Channel 4
 3:00  24/1 The Queen
 3:10  66/1 Cinderella             66/1 The Prisoner of Azkaban
 4:45  50/1 The Highway Rat
 5:50                              25/1 Emmerdale
 5:15       BBC News
 5:30   4/1 Doctor Who
 6:30   3/4 Strictly Come Dancing
 6:50                                   ITV News
 7:00                              12/1 For The Love of Dogs
 7:40   6/1 Call The Midwife                                     20/1 The Great Christmas Bake Off
 8:00                              21/1 Coronation Street
 9:00   14/1 Eastenders            12/1 Victoria
10:00    7/1 Mrs Brown's Boys
10:35   33/1 French and Saunders

Predict The Ratings Competition

With Christmas just around the corner it can mean only one (other) thing - it's time for our annual Predict the Ratings competition! This year readers have the chance to win the latest series of adventures featuring the Doctor, Pearl and Nardole, and culminating in two Doctors' final swansongs!


The ratings and positions for 2015 and 2016 are presented here for comparison - recent years have seen a decline in television viewing over Christmas Day across all channels, with none of the programmes achieving the heady heights of several years ago.

To enter our competition, please send the following details to comp-xmasratings@doctorwhonews.net:

• Your name and preferred email address
• Your country of entry (full details will be requested only if you are the winner)
• Your guess at the final viewing figure to the nearest 10,000 (eg.9.99m)
• Your guess at the final position in the chart (eg. 1st) - this will only be used in the event of a tie-break

Terms and Conditions:

• The competition closes at 08:00 GMT, 26th December 2017.
• Only one entry will be accepted per person.
• The competition is open worldwide.
• BARB final figures are expected in early 2018 we will contact the winner once they have been published
• The prize is a copy of The Complete Tenth Series and Twice Upon A Time releases on DVD or Bluray; we will confirm the format with the winner at time of notification.

Twice Around The World

Doctor Who has its debut in the United Kingdom on BBC1 at 5:30pm ... but will also be seen in the Middle East at the same time as, with previous years, BBC First simulcast the episode. This will be closely followed by ABC in Australia making it available online via iView immediately after its UK broadcast, and will then be shown in Australian cinemas in the afternoon (01:00 GMT). North America get to see it next, with both BBC America in the United States and SPACE in Canada showing the episode at 9:00pm EST (02:00 GMT).

Boxing Day broadcasts include Prime in New Zealand and ABC in Australia at 7:30pm local time (06:30 and 08:30 GMT respectively), and in the afternoon the episode will be shown on the big screen in Denmark. Viewers in Finland will be able to watch Twice Upon A Time on YLE2 in the evening on the Wednesday, and a British signed version airs in the early hours of Saturday morning on BBC2.

Heading into the new year, and FOX in Germany will be showing the episode dubbed into German on the 10th January, and Sony SciFi in Russia will show it on the 13th. It is expected that RAI4 in Italy and France4 in France will broadcast it in their native languages later in the Spring.

You can keep up with Doctor Who around the world via This Week in Doctor Who