put out to tender<\/a>\u201d has caused confusion, describing it as an industry term that means the programme is being pitched to be made by an independent production company.<\/p>\n\u201cAnd I understand that\u2019s an industry phrase,\u201d Davies said. \u201cPeople might not understand what a show being put out to tender means.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cEqually, at the same time, those people are complaining on devices which have a search engine. Go and look it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davies argued that this is a normal process within the BBC, comparing the situation to other shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will happen to every BBC show,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s happened to Casualty, it\u2019s happened to the weather. The weather was put out to tender. Do you know the weather now is not made by the Met Office?\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cWhat it means is the programme is pitched to be made by an independent company, as opposed to the BBC. Independent companies include BBC Studios, by the way, which is separate to BBC Public Service. So, they\u2019re in the running, I imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davies stressed that he is no longer involved in the process, calling it \u201cvery legal\u201d, but suggested that a tender would only make sense if the BBC were planning for Doctor Who to continue beyond a single year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same thing is happening here with Doctor Who,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think, I\u2019m not in charge of this process, that means many years ahead. No one\u2019s going to put out to tender, no one\u2019s going to apply for a tender for one year. It\u2019s not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davies concluded: \u201cSo I think this guarantees years of the programme. But no, go ahead and call it cancelled, everyone. You\u2019re wrong. You\u2019re literally wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Davies is technically correct, the defensive tone of the interview is unlikely to dispel the impression that this was, at least in part, an exercise in damage control.<\/p>\n
Davies was also asked what he would do differently if he could take the TARDIS back to when he returned to Doctor Who for a second time. His answer was blunt: \u201cOh, nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n
He concluded: \u201cI loved what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell T Davies has hit back against claims that Doctor Who has been cancelled, insisting that reports suggesting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-636520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Doctor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/rtd-tardis-2023.jpg\")
<\/p>\n