There's good news and bad news, Whovians.
The good: Peter Capaldi's debut "Doctor Who" episode delivered record ratings among American audiences. Titled "Deep Breath," the premiere found the newly-regenerated Doctor investigating an odd string of murders in Victorian London while sorting out his new skin and his relationship with his companion, Clara.
For BBC America, the feature-length episode brought in 2.58 million total viewers, making it the no. 1 cable program for Saturday, August 23 from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM. That number was good enough to increase the show's ratings over last year's season premiere by 46 percent total viewers. BBC America says it was also the most-discussed show on both Twitter and Tumblr for the day, and it was BBCA's best-ever numbers for a season premiere.
Curiously, the show's ratings actually went down in the U.K. It delivered respectable ratings to the tune of 6.8 million British viewers, but that was more than one million less than those who watched Matt Smith's debut four years ago. The premieres of Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant drew over two million more viewers.
The BBC says that the lowered ratings were largely due to a scheduling conflict.
"This was difficult, because it was on a bank holiday weekend," said a representative for the BBC. "A lot of families are away and not as many people are at home watching TV."
It should be noted that the viewership figures for both countries don't take into account ticket sales from fans who watched "Deep Breath" at their local movie theater, where it was shown for one night only.
On the same night, BBC America's new show "Intruders" drew more than one million viewers to the network, a respectable sum that's on par with the debut episode of BBCA's cult hit "Orphan Black."
