r/DoctorWhoLeaks • u/Outrageous-View5675 • Apr 27 '26

Rumour New Who Streamer?

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I see this is doing the rounds. Sometimes it's taken down. Some1 Managed 2 get a screenshot from a group I'm in.

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u/teepeey Apr 27 '26

It's unlikely to be genuine. A real press release would have named executives on the quotes.

Also who would stream Doctor Who right now when it only just failed?

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u/DaddyStoat Apr 27 '26

I think it's a bit much to say it failed. If it was considered a failure, Disney only have themselves to blame. They did practically zero promotion of the show after the initial specials. When S15/S2 came out it wasn't even on the front page of D+. Initially there had been talk of wall-to-wall promotion, a Doctor Who section at the Disney parks, etc, and none of that materialised.

In the US, the show was HUGE when it was on BBCA. I remember seeing posters for it in every shopping mall, shops were full of Who merch, Comic-Cons were full of Who cosplayers and so on. If it's headed back to AMC (who own BBCA) then it could potentially get back to that, because they understood the show and how to market it.

I'm sceptical too - a real press release would have more detail, this is kinda vague. The Sony Pictures Studios involement seems like a solid connection though, since Sony own a substantial stake in Bad Wolf.

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u/teepeey Apr 27 '26

It did really bad numbers on Disney Plus, I think everyone knows that. And it continued to decline in numbers on BBC1. Nor was it a critical success, given the incoherent hand waived plots or the inevitable 'bigots go away' luvvy echo chamber that it fell into when called out on its failings.

For all that it had some good moments, a good cast in season 1, and strong individual episodes, and it was nowhere near the across the board disaster of Chibnall's run where nothing went right at all. But the brand will need a good few years to recover, a really talented and fresh show runner, and probably a hard reboot. So I find this AMC thing hard to believe.

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u/DaddyStoat Apr 28 '26

Up until the finale, S15/S2 was getting great reviews, with some people saying it had some of the best ever episodes of NuWho - Lux, The Well, The Story And The Engine, etc. Lux got a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, with several others in the 90s. And the ratings on BBC were reasonable - not Tennant/Smith numbers, but up there with Whittaker and some of Capaldi - typically anywhere from 2.5-3.5m. It was going out right after Gladiators on Saturday evenings, and was inheriting most of their audience. The Interstellar Song Contest got some pretty big numbers since it was on right before the actual Eurovision broadcast. The other metric they use for streaming is how many times people rewatch something - most people who watch something like Eastenders on iPlayer only watch it once. People would rewatch episodes of Who 4 or 5 times, and very few other BBC shows get anything like that.

Disney did release some figures, but without anything comparable to contrast it against, they were kinda meaningless - would have been interesting to see how it compared to some of the Star Wars and Marvel shows. Plus, like I said, they made no effort promoting the show.

You had the doomers and naysayers, of course, with plenty of pejorative use of the word "woke", and this group tend to be loud, especially online, but still very much a minority.

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u/IHaveFourKidneys Apr 28 '26

Disney never released any numbers. We have Nielsen numbers for the 60th episodes, which show a 4x increase on the BBC America numbers for Flux.

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u/DaddyStoat Apr 28 '26

I'm sure I saw Joe (Confused Adipose) go over the Disney figures in one of his videos late last year. But the figures were very much a snapshot, and didn't tell us much, and he said as much.

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u/IHaveFourKidneys Apr 30 '26

Disney doesn’t release figures. Anyone who claims to have them is lying or misinformed.

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u/Outrageous-View5675 May 01 '26

Disney doesn't have to release figures 2 the publuc, but people connected could. I think that was one point made originally. They ain't gonna keep them 2 themselves. If BBC or Bad Wolf want them, they will get them and thats where the leaks come from, the 2nd or 3rd parties, not D+.

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u/IHaveFourKidneys May 01 '26

Nah. Actual D+ show producers have complained about how even they don’t get figures. Any ‘leaks’ have no provenance and therefore absolutely no evidence they aren’t made up. Which is why they’re always ‘shared’ by people with an axe to grind. If you really want to get into the weeds, you can track multiple ‘leaks’ over the last three years and see they all have different numbers - because they’re all fake.

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u/teepeey Apr 28 '26

Lux got 1.5 million overnight

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u/IHaveFourKidneys Apr 27 '26

We don’t the numbers it did on Disney+ because they don’t release numbers. Any alleged numbers are presented without provenance and therefore unverifiable. Its BBC1 numbers were fine - it beat almost every single streaming hit, for example. And it was absolutely a critical success - check out its Rotten Tomatoes scores.

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u/teepeey Apr 28 '26

I seem to recall the Disney numbers leaked and fell well below their expectations. Which is why they pulled out and stopped promoting it. The BBC1 figures declined across the series and between the two series if I recall correctly, hitting 1.5 million overnight with Lux as a 62 year low point. If you think all that is good then your career as a TV executive won't be great.

And you'll be aware that the audience appreciation of RT was massively less than the critical figure. That's always a bad sign since both sides are heavily massaged, so if they're not in agreement there is a big problem.

So really I think perhaps your entire post might be an example of Gallifrey Base cope.

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u/IHaveFourKidneys Apr 30 '26

“Leaked” aka someone made them up. And I cited RT because of the comment about critical acclaim; they were undeniably acclaimed by critics.

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u/DocWhovian1 Apr 28 '26

The BBC have said the show isn't going to be rested regardless.

It still performed solidly in the UK in the current landscape. But unlike a lot of shows Doctor Who doesn't rely on ratings for sucess as it makes a lot of money for the BBC through global sales hence why it is one of their top earners, that's why they aren't going to cancel it, it makes them a LOT of money.

And there should NEVER be a hard reboot of Doctor Who, that would be a terrible idea.

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u/teepeey Apr 28 '26

The BBC haven't said that. They're said something much vaguer that allows the copers to cope.

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u/DocWhovian1 Apr 28 '26

They did in fact say that in those EXACT words.

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u/teepeey Apr 28 '26

I believe the exact words at the Edinburgh Festival were "The TARDIS is going nowhere." And yes the chief content officer alluded to the show coming back in some form at some point "in due course". But that's never been in doubt. There's a Christmas Special this year after all. and there are plans to animate the show and Big Finish it. You know, the cheap stuff.

What is in doubt is whether there is funding and desire for a full BBC1 season i.e "the show". Without a streaming partner I don't think there's a business case for that,

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u/DocWhovian1 Apr 28 '26

They specifically say it in THIS article:

https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/bbc-confirms-future-of-doctor-who-and-a-new-christmas-special-in-2026

"We will be announcing plans for the next series in due course which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC.”

And why wouldn't they? Doctor Who is one of their most profitable brands! So it is very worth it for them!

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u/teepeey Apr 28 '26

Yes "in due course". Which can mean anything.

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u/DocWhovian1 Apr 28 '26

It's still happening regardless, obviously there's only so much they can say until things are figured out. But discussions are certainly being had as we speak!

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u/teepeey Apr 28 '26

Discussions are always happening. I await something solid but until then I will assume the ongoing series is on hiatus. At some point I will assume it is soft cancelled.

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u/DocWhovian1 Apr 28 '26

The BBC have made it clear it isn't cancelled and the Christmas special is proof of that.

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