The Next Series Of ‘Doctor Who’ Won’t Start Until Early 2020
I hope you enjoyed tonight’s ‘Doctor Who‘ finale, because, after the New Year’s Day special, there is going to be a bit of a wait for the next season the BBC has confirmed… Series 12 won’t air until early 2020.
“We’re off again! Well, we never actually stopped,” commented showrunner Chris Chibnall. “As Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor and friends have been winning the hearts of families across the nation this autumn, we’ve been busy with a whole new set of action packed adventures for the Thirteenth Doctor. We adore making this show and have been blown away by the response from audiences, so we can’t wait to bring more scares, more monsters and more Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole to BBC One. Brilliant!”
There had been rumours last months commenting that Chibnall had been struggling with the schedule for the timelord series, leading to speculation he may leave the show if the BBC insisted on keeping to its current episode count and format. If that happened, it was likely that Whittaker would have gone with him. Thankfully, that is not the case, as the Beeb would have been pretty keen to keep the team together, given the viewing numbers. Jodie’s first episode as the Doctor launched with a consolidated audience of 11 million making it the second biggest drama this year across all channels, while also placing it among the top 10 programmes in 2018 so far across all channels and genres. The the first eight episodes of the season averaged a consolidated audience of 8.4m.
“We’re delighted that the Doctor and her friends will be returning to thrill audiences in 2020,” adds Charlotte Moore, Director of Content. “I know Chris and the whole team are already working on a whole new set of exciting adventures. In the meantime, we’ve got a very special episode on New Year’s Day for everyone to enjoy.”
Given the BBC are saying “early 2020”, we would speculate it’s likely that Series 12 could kick off with a 2020 New Year’s Day special, although that is in no way confirmed. We’ll let you know when we do hear more (although that might be a while!)
The Doctor and team return on the 1st January 2019 for the ‘Doctor Who New Year’s Day Special’ at 7pm on BBC One.
