How popular is Doctor Who in America?

32 comments

1. It has a good-sized niche following, people have heard of it, but it’s by no means a mainstream cultural staple

2. It peaked around the Tennant/Smith era over here. Capaldi’s casting may have hurt the show on this side of the Atlantic.

3. It has a very passionate niche fandom but I’d say most people probably haven’t seen or heard of it.

4. Definitely not as popular as James Bond. I feel like there was a peak of interest during David Tenants run.

5. My mother is a fan of it she watched a lot of it back in the day, I can tell you it’s reached the popularity to the point where I can walk into a random Barnes & Noble or any comic store and there will probably be dr who merch
   So pretty popular

6. There was a period where it was reasonably high in popularity. Nowhere near the level of mainstream US sitcoms, and the overall cultural pervasiveness has decreased a lot in the last decade or so.

   It’s still has its sort of cult following, but it’s probably in the same category as many other British sitcoms, like the Inbetweeners, The IT Crowd, Black Adder etc etc.

   There are people who know about it, and there are certainly some tea-a-boos who love it (Tardis mugs and shit like that), but it’s pretty niche.

7. It’s well-known in certain groups and not in others. But it’s popular enough that you can go into hot topic at the mall and they have all kinds of tardis merch.

8. I haven’t really heard anybody talk about it, nor have I watched or even seen anything past Matt Smith. Couldn’t even tell you who played the doctor afterwards.

9. I’m a big sci-fi fan so I love it. Even for a few years I lived in a area where I had to pay a extra cable plan just to get BBC America to watch Dr Who. However, I suppose a majority of people don’t know about it.

10. It was at its height in the late 00s-2014 or so. The early reboot era basically. Not a household name, but it cut out a fairly large niche especially amongst internet fandoms.

    Before that I guess PBS aired some of the older series on occasion. It would’ve been incredibly obscure prior to New Who — Americans aware of its existence at the time likely could’ve fit in a small stadium.

    For example: I lived in England immediately prior to the reboot. My entire family, including someone who was the exact target audience for the initial airings of the mainstream American Star Trek/Star Wars series, had never heard of it prior to living there. Then we happened upon a Dalek in a British mall for some reason.

11. It’s not fundamental here, but there is a huge following. Anyone into geek or nerd culture will be familiar with Doctor Who, and most of my friends have watched at least 2 seasons (series) after #9.

12. Was she not well received? I had no idea.

13. The geek community LOVES it. Most non-geek people may have heard of it or recall seeing reruns on PBS in their childhood of some guy with a REALLY long scarf in a phonebox.

    I say this as a person who annually attends a large geek convention.

14. Among sci fi fans here, Doctor Who is well-known and has a lot of watchers. It’s nowhere near as mainstream here as it is in the UK, but it’s not unknown or obscure either.

15. Anyone remotely into science fiction and/or fantasy has heard of Doctor Who. The Doctor has a pretty passionate following, but not nearly as broad a following as, say, Star Trek.

    Personally, I have always felt like I’m *supposed* to like Doctor Who, but I’ve never been able to get into it. On paper it should be right up my alley – I love science fiction, I love quirky stories and characters, I’m basically half a Brit myself (my dad was an Essex lad who emigrated here and I spent some of my formative years living there). It just doesn’t grab me.

16. I’m aware of it, but never watched it. I think that’s pretty common amongst Americans. There are a small number of people who love it though.

17. It’s a niche, nerdy thing but there are plenty of fans.
    Also how dare you insult Jodie like this

18. Very niche fandom over here. It got popular for a while in the Tenant and Smith eras, then fell off mid-Capaldi, and nobody I know cared about Whitaker at all. For the record, I stopped watching mid-Capaldi not because of him (I loved him as the Doctor) but because of increasingly lame storylines and the BBC’s steadfast dedication to not having anything run on a regular schedule.

19. I know a few people who like it, but I’ve never had any interest in watching it.

20. There is a Doctor Who fanbase here. Not really sure how big it is.

21. I adored Tennant and Smith as the Doctor. Capaldi was good but the writing started to get a bit rough. Whittaker is extremely rough and I stopped watching somewhere in her second season as the Doctor. She is a good actress but did not feel like she settled on a consistent personality line for the Doctor like the others who have played him did. But this is very likely a writing issue as the general writing for the seasons was very inconsistent and all over the place and fully rewriting the “rule of the universe” as established since the beginning of the new era of Doctor Who.

22. I have watched Dr. Who since Tom Baker. There a a lot more Who fans than people think. I see references to the show in a lot of other shows. I see plenty of window decals and stickers on cars.

23. I’ve been a fan since the 80s. My grandmother watched Doctro Who and we would watch it together. My favorite doctor is Tom Baker.

24. [removed]

25. > Despite Jodie Whitakers terrible era…

    I think you mean to say Chris Chibnall’s terrible era. Jodie Whittaker is doing the best she can with shit material.

26. As others said, it was the most popular during the 10th and 11th doctor’s run. However, due to a combination of worse writing and just because generally teenage girls (who made up a significant portion of the American fandom) weren’t really into someone as old as Peter Capaldi, it lost popularity. Now a days it’s a niche fandom and people aren’t really into the newer episodes that I know of.

27. I grew up watching Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker on PBS after school and started watching again about halfway through the Tenant run. I kind of dropped off near the end of the Matt Smith era.

    I think most of the people I know who watched Doctor Who but weren’t huge fans stopped watching sometime during the Smith run.

    Knowledge of what Doctor Who is probably widespread enough in America that general pop-culture references to it will be understood. Lots of people will know that the phone box is Doctor Who’s spaceship/time machine, not a lot of people will catch a River Song reference.

28. It peaked 9 years ago I think.

29. Definetly has a dedicated following. People into science fiction and Anglophiles especially.

30. It was pretty big from 2010-2015 or so. It was the show nerdy high school and college girls watched. Nerdy guys trying to impress those girls followed it too. It was the Tumblr era.

    Now it’s fairly niche. I’m in a few nerdy circles and I don’t think I heard anyone reference Doctor Who in years. Those same types of people are more into Marvel, Star Wars, and shonen anime these days.

31. I tried watching an episode around 10 years ago, and found it to be incredibly boring. I’m a big fan of sci-fi, but I just couldn’t see why people get into it.

32. It seemed to peak during the build-up to the 50th anniversary and tapered off for the next few years. Not sure I’ve heard about it in conversation since about 2016-17.