Producers of a TV programme will naturally have an attachment to something they have helped make and as such will defend its quality and creative vision until the cows come home, but one thing that cannot be argued with (for better or worse) is ratings, especially those in consistent timeslots, unless your name is Steven Moffat, of Doctor Who.

The showrunner of the long-running BBC1 sci-fi series has defended an apparent decline in ratings in recent times, and while that sort of argument usually starts and ends with cold hard statistics, Moffat claims other factors are responsible, with suggestions that audience numbers overall have ‘barely changed’ since the show’s revival in 2005.

Speaking on the panel of Doctor Who: Anatomy of a Hit at the Royal Television Society earlier this week, Moffat said of the show and its performance: “The figures are the same – they’re just the same. If by ‘ratings’, you mean the number of people who watch the show… they are the same. The headline – boring though it is – is that they’ve barely changed since Doctor Who came back.”

He then brought in the argument of how catch-up TV is affecting scripted series’ first broadcast performances due to being able to catch-up to episodes in their own time rather than on a more traditional linear schedule, adding: “Since Matt Smith took over Doctor Who – the time I’ve been doing it – the number of people that watch the show on iPlayer has trebled. The way people watch it has changed. People watch it on catch-up to a much greater degree, but there is no drop-off in the ratings. For the record, if our overnights were our final rating, that would still count as a hit. I would be working hard, even as a Scot, to be disappointed!”

Ending on 5.4m with their most recent season finale last weekend (8 November), the show will move into its Christmas special with high hopes of getting more viewers on a one-off basis, but more permanently is Moffat right in believing that the end figure for high-profile TV isn’t all that important considering the streaming options now on offer?

One surefire way to improve the ratings on all formats, though, is to invoke in the current ‘Doctor’ character even more of an edge from the actor’s previous roles. Moral guardians aside, who wouldn’t want to watch Doctor Tucker in a battle of wits against the villains of space and time:

Wintertime on TV often means delving a little more into the theatrical side of programming, as networks look to cash in on the annual spike in popularity of ‘going to a show’ by bringing the show to the viewer.

In this instance, it is NBC who have made one of the first moves this year, after previously announcing that they will be showcasing a performance of Peter Pan Live! next month, but have committed a little more to this broadcast than just the on-stage action.

The network have confirmed that they will be airing a behind-the-scenes documentary a week before their 4 December main show, on 26 November, but revealing a trailer for that bonus feature this week.

NBC have used their short to showcase the actors practicing for the TV special, including lead cast member Allison Williams flying on a wire across the stage. Other clips featured showcase Christopher Walken as “Captain Hook” practicing a dance number.

In other casting, it is known that Minnie Driver will narrate the musical as well as feature as an adult version of “Wendy Darling”, with broadway star Taylor Louderman as her younger self, and Christian Borle and Kelli O’Hara set to feature as the Darling parents.

With the network also planning to develop a ‘modern sitcom’ based on the J.M. Barrie mythology, will their relationship with Peter Pan take a positive step with the behind-the-scenes special. Of course, their main focus for now will not be the documentary, but the second show on their schedule, then straight on till new year:

It is well within Apple’s nature to release many different slightly-variated products and even more slightly-variated size shifts of them, but it seems as though one of their spin-off products is soon to spin out of production.

The iPad mini, an item Apple created to fill that exact smaller-sized void in their product portfolio, will reportedly soon be no longer, after a news source hinted at a change of focus for the company’s iPad brand.

The tablet computer series is set to lose its ‘mini’ version in 2015, according to Taiwanese media source udn, who suggest that the smaller product is being pushed aside in favour of greater levels of attention being placed on the upcoming new ‘iPad Pro’ range, with decreasing sales figures for the iPad mini believed to be the natural cause for this different way of thinking.

iPad Pro, yet to be formally announced (with rumours currently suggesting a Q1 2015 release date, and the same for the planned ‘Apple Watch’ in a more delayment-based scenario), is believed to be an upcoming tablet-laptop hybrid with a default size of a ‘12.9-inch screen’ and the same thinness as the iPhone 6.

And in the move to do so, they look likely to drop the project of trying to sell a slightly scaled-down version of the main iPad concept. Considering the iPhone 6 Plus is now an option on the mobile device market, perhaps Apple were just concerned about confusing their poor impressionable followers…

In a headline that will no doubt please viewers who enjoy a little quality in their programming, one of the biggest reality TV shows around has been cancelled, namely TLC‘s breakout hit show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

The spin-off, created out of a featured contestant on fellow TLC reality show Toddlers & Tiaras, followed the life of Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson and her proud redneck family in the town of McIntyre (Georgia, USA).

After making it through 2 years and 4 seasons, though, network executives have decided to not make any more, meaning the last episode of the show aired in August, although it appears to be out of a sense of ‘morality’ rather than any qualitative or ratings-based factors across its 4 seasons, 52 episodes, and 7 TV specials on the network.

Entertainment Weekly reports that the decision to cancel the show was made on Friday (24 October), a day after celebrity gossip source TMZ reported that one of the reality show’s biggest characters “Mama June” Shannon, is currently dating a registered sex offender who was punished for child molestation over a decade beforehand, but later discovered that his victim was one of Mama June’s daughters.

Considering the widely-accepted view amongst critics that the show is exploitative of the Thompson family, TLC have released their statement on the disturbing matter, noting of the decision: “TLC has cancelled the series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and ended all activities around the series, effective immediately. Supporting the health and welfare of these remarkable children is our only priority. TLC is faithfully committed to the children’s ongoing comfort and well-being.”

So to do that, they turn off the cameras on Mama June’s other daughters and walk away… of course, the statement most people want the network to come out with is ‘this show should never have been commissioned in the first place’…

Latest TV searches:

YouTube can be the home of some brilliant and/or crazy unusual ideas on a regular basis, and the latest one to hit some sort of viral status has put Dawson’s Creek and dogs into the mixer and produced the results.

That result is Dachshund’s Creek, a teenage young canine drama from YouTuber Mike Immerman that takes the audio from original classic scenes of the 90’s teen drama on The WB, then attaches them to a group of dogs costumed in the style of the overaged actors, right  down (or up) to the wigs.

The official synopsis for the trailer on its video listing simply states: “A story about love, life, and growing up.”

Talking dog content is almost always the bane of TV/movie existence when it comes to quality, but does such a blatant parody get a pass? Judge below:

And while not a direct source for the above video, a real trailer for comparison’s sake below: