Season 19 Autopsy

Janet Fielding is fond of claiming that Season 19 saw an increase in UK ratings and that this justifies every change that was made.

It's true the UK ratings were both increased and more consistent.

So here's the data.

Season 19 has the highest average since since 1979/80 and a standard deviation under 1.

Notes for statistically challenged.

avg is the mean - sum of all values divided by the quantity of values.

St Dev is standard deviation -  a measure of the variation of a set of values.

• Low standard deviation shows values are close to the mean. 
• High standard deviation shows values are spread over a wider range.

There are many factors that may account for this: not least of which is the time-slot change (Mon/Tue instead of Saturdays) and the all post Xmas dates (i.e. Jan start).

But mostly anything would have looked good after Season 18 (which was a disaster.)

Story	UK Viewers (millions)	Season statistics	UK viewers (millions)	Episode
4M	9.5	S14 avg	11.1
4N	11.0	S14 peak	13.1	4Y p4
4P	12.2	S14 low	8.3	4X p1
4Q	11.2	S14 St Dev.	1.3
4R	12.7
4S	10.4
4V	8.4	S15 avg	9.0
4T	7.9	S15 peak	11.7	4Y p4
4X	7.8	S15 low	6.7	4X p1
4W	8.8	S15 St Dev.	1.4
4Y	9.7
4Z	10.5
5A	8.1	S16 avg	8.6
5B	8.3	S16 peak	12.4	5E p2
5C	8.0	S16 low	6.5	5E p1
5D	9.4	S16 St Dev.	1.2
5E	9.4
5F	8.5
5J	13.5	S17 avg	11.2
5H	14.5	S17 peak	16.1	5H p4
5G	10.0	S17 low	6.0	5L p1
5K	9.3	S17 St Dev.	2.6
5L	8.8
5N	5.1	S18 avg	5.8
5Q	4.7	S18 peak	8.3	5S p3
5R	5.2	S18 low	3.7	5R p2
5P	5.2	S18 St Dev.	1.2
5S	7.5
5T	6.3
5V	6.8
5Z	9.6	S19 avg	9.2
5W	8.9	S19 peak	10.4	5Z p4
5Y	8.8	S19 low	8.1	6C p4
5X	9.6	S19 St Dev.	0.7
6A	10.0
6B	9.3
6C	8.9