Earlier this year, the ABC hinted that it would be fast-tracking episodes of Doctor Who from the UK as quickly as possible. However, it now looks like we’ll be facing the same week-long delay as last year.
2010’s Who Christmas special was shown by the ABC less than 24 hours after its UK broadcast, and ABC programmers indicated that a similar approach was on the cards for 2011 broadcasts. However, TV Tonight reports that the first new Who episode will be broadcast on Saturday April 30 at 730pm, one week after its expected UK debut.
This is effectively the same pattern that Who followed last year in Australia, though the broadcast night has been switched to Saturday from Sunday and the delay is one week, not two. (There’ll be a mid-season break in the UK, and hence also down under.)
To be fair, a one-week delay is still very good compared to commercial networks, and we can at least be confident that the ABC won’t arbitrarily change its scheduling a couple of weeks in. Nonetheless, part of me wishes that the channel had stuck with Sunday night broadcasts, and given us new episodes the same weekend they aired in Britain. Your thoughts?
Returning: Doctor Who [TV Tonight]
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