Doctor Who executive producer Matt Strevens appears to now worship at the altar of denial, as reported by Radio Times.

We understand that PR in any industry is essentially a huge amount of lying but there are both limits to what anyone can swallow and a point beyond which you're just providing ammunition to opponents.

In their article titled:

Doctor Who producer denies ratings struggles

Radio Times quote Strevens:

“What’s fascinating to me is the way Doctor Who viewing figures are obsessed over, unlike many other shows on TV,” he told Doctor Who Magazine. “And that’s fine, because I think it’s a testament to the fact that people are still always keen to read about Doctor Who. So that’s probably a positive thing.”

“I think they’re happy,” he added. “Of course, you get the odd juggernaut, like [2021’s] Vigil, but by and large, five-odd million is really healthy for any drama on terrestrial. And on streaming services, they can only dream of figures like that. So I think our ratings are really respectable."

So he's a ratings-denier.

People concerned about climate change? Just obsessing over the figures. They should find a more healthy way to express their love. Like, hugging a tree!

[Insert any temperature here] is a bit warmer than previous years? It's still really healthy for any place on earth. I regularly holiday in warmer climes.

He continues:

“For me, what’s sometimes… frustrating is too strong a word… but when overnight figures are reported and compared to previous consolidated figures, in order to make the most dramatic headline, that’s a bit disingenuous. Especially when you look at the way television is consumed today. Doctor Who is available on iPlayer, so audiences can still watch it whenever and wherever they choose.”

Has anyone actually done that though - compared overnight figures to consolidated ones?

Because the undeniable fact that is that ratings are down. The numbers don't lie.

While there were a few poor episodes, on the whole we enjoyed the Chibnall / Whittaker seasons.

The Timeless Child retcon was at best pointless and quite probably a mistake but maybe not fatal.

They finally lost us during The Flux when they descended into racism. We didn't finish watching that season or bother with the New Year special.

Coming back to the ratings-denial - Strevens is leaving Doctor Who this year so he's a perfect PR sacrifical lamb. Like an outgoing political leader.

He / they can take the blame for everything that went wrong with them.

So he was a good choice to mount some kind of defence of the show's poorer performance but this does not appear to have been deftly done.

[ Main Image: Doctor Who. Credit: BBC via IMDb.com. ]

References

Kanter, Jake (July 29, 2022). ‘Doctor Who’: Jodie Whittaker & Showrunner Chris Chibnall Are Leaving Iconic Sci-Fi Series, BBC Confirm. Deadline.

Moss, Molly (February 6, 2022). Doctor Who producer denies ratings struggles. Radio Times.

Wikipedia. List of Doctor Who episodes (2005–present). (viewed February 7, 2022)