Doctor Who: The Impossible Astronaut - Final Ratings

BARB have published the official consolidated viewing figure for "The Impossible Astronaut", the opening episode of the latest series of Doctor Who.

The episode was watched by a total of 8.86 million viewers on BBC One, with a 43.3% share of the total TV audience.

The figure is over 2 million higher than the initial overnight rating of 6.5 million.

The consolidated figure includes viewers who recorded the episode and watched within 7 days of transmission, but not those who viewed the programme on the BBC iPlayer or watched a repeat showing.

Within two days of transmission, "The Impossible Astronaut" had been watched by over 300,000 viewers on the BBC iPlayer. The episode has remained within the top five of the online catch-up service's most-watched chart for the majority of the last week.

A further 0.47 million watched the BBC Three repeat on Friday.

The chart position of Doctor Who is being calculated and will be revealed when BARB publishes the weekly chart on Tuesday.

The Impossible Astronaut's viewing figure is in line with the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Doctor Who series openers which were viewed by 8.6 million, 8.7m and 9.1 million viewers respectively.

2005's "Rose" and 2010's "The Eleventh Hour" were both viewed over 10 million times, however this is probably due to the fact that they introduced a new actor into the role of The Doctor.

In Australia, "The Impossible Astronaut" was watched by 0.86 million viewers in the five capital cities yesterday on ABC1, making it fourth watched programme of the day.

(Source: The Doctor Who News Page)