Doctor Who: Pre-empted

The BBC pre-empted Doctor Who last night; ostensibly for the Eurovision Song Contest. But if you actually look at where shows have been airing recently and where they will be airing in the weeks to come that's not exactly true.

Doctor Who has been airing at 7pm during it's current run and looking ahead 3 or 4 weeks it will continue to air at that time. The Eurovision Song Contest didn't start until 8pm last night. Shows that normally run in that time-slot are I'd Do Anything, followed by The National Lottery 100-1 and then Casualty.

If they had dropped Doctor Who and just moved I'd Do Anything into it's slot I could've understood. After all, I'd Do Anything generates good business and ratings for the BBC. However, the rescheduling went even further than that.

What the BBC actually did was they pre-empted The Kids Are Alright from it's pre-Doctor Who slot, also pre-empted Doctor Who, shortened The National Lottery down to just the draws and then finally pre-empted Casualty.

They aired a repeat of The Weakest Link Paranormal Special at 5:50pm and followed that with I'd Do Anything at 6:50pm and then the National Lottery draws leading into the 8pm start for Eurovision.

So, whereas Casualty was pre-empted for Eurovision, Doctor Who was actually pre-empted to make room for a repeat of a quiz show. Now, I'm not totally convinced of the all around merits of Eurovision, but at least that only comes along once a year.

If the special episode of The Weakest Link had been a new Eurovision special I might have seen the reasoning, but a repeat of a paranormal special that had no relevance to the rest of the evening?

The BBC could have easily dropped The Kids Are Alright and Casualty as they did last night anyway and then moved I'd Do Anything into the slot vacated by The Kids Are Alright without dropping Doctor Who at all

With Doctor Who taking a break next year I would've thought the BBC would have been more accommodating of their main cash cow. There was nothing stopping them holding the special over until Doctor Who ends it's run; especially considering the lack of relevance.