In the face of actual concrete evidence to audiences’ declining interest in the series, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has admitted that the series’ current ratings are far from where he would like them to be.

Per actual reported numbers from UK television viewing data aggregator Barb, the latest Doctor Who series has been, to say the least, struggling to find its footing.

In terms of overnight ratings (i.e. the amount of views a given episode receives in the first 24-hours of its airing) the first six episodes of the 15th Doctor’s first proper season have averaged an abysmal 2 million viewers apiece, with a high of 2.62 million, as posted by the season’s fourth episode ’73 Yards’, and a season-and-franchise low of 2.04 million, as pulled in by the preceding episode ‘Boom’.

And unsurprisingly, the series’ consolidated viewership numbers aren’t any better, as in the respective seven-day time frames following their premieres, each outing only barely managed to double their overnight results: