Which Doctor Who Christmas special has the highest UK viewing figures?

The Doctor Who Christmas special with the highest UK viewing figures is “Voyage of the Damned”. Broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2007, it attracted a final audience of 13.31 million viewers, with a peak of 13.8 million.

The episode stars David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Kylie Minogue as Astrid Peth, a waitress aboard the spacefaring Titanic. The ship is modelled on the famous ocean liner and becomes trapped on a deadly collision course with Earth. Minogue’s celebrity helped generate substantial publicity and contributed to the special’s unusually large audience.

“Voyage of the Damned” was the third Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who era. Its audience was the programme’s highest since the 1979 serial “City of Death” and remained the revival’s overall record according to the cited figures. It also ranked as the second most-watched UK television programme of 2007, behind an episode of EastEnders.

A common mix-up is confusing the overnight estimate of 12.2 million with the final consolidated figure. The answer refers to the final UK viewing figure.