TomH1138 said:
Honestly, all the interest I've seen has been up this season from last. "Spyfall" and "Fugitive of the Judoon" finally seemed to generate some much-needed positive buzz, at least on the social media pages I've been following.
It seems like every single year, a news site claims that the ratings have fallen catastrophically, and ask (either rhetorically or to the head of the BBC) if the show is going to get cancelled. I've seen these articles constantly since I started watching over a decade ago. I think the news sites just like the clicks they get.
(But no harm in letting us know what's being said by Deadline. Thanks for sharing the link, Asterix!)
The Beeb said similar things in 1989. We all know what happened then.
As @"TM2YC" indicated, it's all politics and trying to curry favour with the public because the Beeb are under threat from the goverment. What else is he going to say? He's not going to admit there's a problem, that isn't how the BBC operate. If they're going to cancel something, they'll say it's to "pursue new programming" or "open up the schedules", they'll never say "we're cancelling it because half the population of Britain thinks it's a bit s*it"
Social media is not a large representation of the country (thank goodness) and the buzz from Spyfall and Judoon had more to do with member berries than it did genuine storytelling.
Ratings are not healthy, the average consolidated figures are lower than they were last year, so you can't even rely on them for consistency when arguing against the absolutely petty live overnight figures. There is growing apathy towards the show, there are letter-writing campaigns being organised.
The show has been officially 'rested' several times in the Nu Who era, all without cancelling it. People thought the 18 month hiatus in Colin Baker's era was extreme? We've had it worse since then all without the show being axed.
I sadly think so long as the Beeb are committed to the programme that the fans will just accept anything that doesn't keep it off our screens for more than a year or two, regardless of diminished interest, as a 'victory', and won't dare challenge the show to step up a bit and take back the audience it's lost.
But them, there's no guarantee of anything...if the licence fee gets cut, so will Doctor Who. Wenger might not even have a job by the end of all the reviews coming up this spring, so his word isn't gospel either.