Journey's End - Officially Number One!

Official figures released today by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board confirm that Journey's End, the final episode of Series Four, was the UK's most watched television programme of the week with an official rating of 10.57 million viewers.

It is the first time in Doctor Who's 45 year history that the programme has achieved this position. Not only did the programme top the chart but it did so in style, getting over 1.5 million more viewers than the second placed programme, Monday's Wimbledon coverage. Journey's End got over 2 million more viewers than any episode of Coronation Street and 3 million more than any episode of EastEnders.

This previous highest chart position was achieved by the 2007 Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, and last week's The Stolen Earth, both of which came second. The highest chart position the classic series achieved was 5th for the second episode of the 1975 Tom Baker story The Ark in Space.

Only 31 episodes of Doctor Who have ever made the top ten, eight starring William Hartnell, one starring Jon Pertwee, one starring Tom Baker, one starring Christopher Eccleston and twenty starring David Tennant.

The high chart position, combined with the outstanding Appreciation Index scores, make the two final episodes of Series 4 undoubtedly the most successful episodes of Doctor Who ever made. With the repeats on BBC3 and the IPlayer downloads included, the final episode has been seen by nearly 13 million viewers within a week of broadcast.

Doctor Who also topped the Multi Channel Chart, with Saturday's Confidential making number one with 1.46 million watching. The Sunday repeat of Journey's End was 2nd with 1.21 million and the Friday repeat of The Stolen Earth got 0.74 million and was the 11th most watched programme.