#the budget is wrong tho i think it's less than 10m$

[nightmanatee]

But almost completely absent from the upfront festivities was Doctor Who, the iconic British sci-fi series that Disney+ now co-produces with the BBC following what was undoubtedly one of the biggest global TV show deals of the past decade. Doctor Who was handed a minor bit of real estate at the North Javits, but its lack of front-and-center placement may spin a yarn about the series’ position in the Disney priority log nearly three years on from the deal being struck.

Noises that it may not last beyond its initial two seasons are already reverberating around international TV circles, and one source close to the production tells us that they feel its future hangs in the balance already. Disney, the BBC, and co-producers BBC Studios and Bad Wolf all declined Deadline’s interview requests for this article.

“I thought it was a mixed bag,” says Tony Jordan, Society Co-ordinator of the 30,000-strong Doctor Who Appreciation Society, who says this feeling broadly reflects that of the mega fans he speaks with regularly. “When Russell’s return was announced I thought, ‘That’s fantastic’ but maybe I remembered the good stuff and chose to forget the not so good stuff. His track record of ending seasons with two parters has been widely varying in success, for example.”

When consolidated seven-day viewing figures were taken into account, the entire series averaged an audience down almost 1.5 million per episode compared to Whittaker’s last in 2021, according to Barb data supplied by overnights.tv, while it failed to light up Barb’s daily seven-day streaming rankings, which were at the time dominated by the likes of Baby Reindeer and Clarkson’s Farm, and evergreens such as EastEnders.

One of our sources close to the production believes Disney will “need to make a decision” on its future relationship with the show soon after The War Between the Land and the Sea wraps, and this could have a bearing on how long the in-demand Gatwa ... this source predicts the final episode has been left open-ended, with the possibility remaining that Gatwa could regenerate into his successor if he chooses to exit. Gatwa’s agents hadn’t responded to Deadline’s request for comment by press time.

take it with a grain of salt but not only is gatwa not sure if he wants to stay in the show, not only the ratings keep dropping down (i hate talking about them but maybe disney isn't), not only is disney now in doubt but the whole "lets bring back old showrunner old actors old writers etc etc and make a deal with a big mouse" is not a... good idea???

wow who (me) could've thought.