Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa jokes about the sci-fi show's low viewership and baffling Billie Piper regeneration: "I don't understand it either"
Ncuti Gatwa poked fun at his brief tenure as the Fifteenth Doctor on Doctor Who while hosting Saturday Night Live UK.
"I've had so many fantastic roles in my career. Millions of you watched me as Eric in Sex Education, and then about 12 of you watched me in Doctor Who. Maybe that's why I kept crying," Gatwa said during his opening monologue. "Joking aside, it was genuinely a magical role. In fact, it was the first time my parents were truly proud of my career."
Contnued Gatwa: "When I told them I got the part, they said, 'Finally, a doctor in the family.' Even though I have since regenerated into Billie Piper… I don’t understand it either… I still love Doctor Who, and I got to meet so many crazy characters, sort of a bit like this place." You can watch the full clip below.
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Ncuti Gatwa dusts off some old skills for hosting. pic.twitter.com/JH6Yfmm68iMay 16, 2026
The 13th season of Doctor Who took a pretty strange turn, with the BBC partnering with Disney Plus for a massive-budget, internationally-reaching rollout... which resulted in record-low viewership (though referring to seasons 14 and 15 as 'season 1' and 'season 2' probably didn't help much). Next, the Doctor's companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) was unceremoniously replaced in season 2/season 15.
Then, in the final moments of the season 2 finale, The Doctor regenerates into Piper, who you might remember as fan-favorite companion Rose Tyler during the Christopher Ecclestone/David Tennant era of the show back in the mid-2000s (and if you didn't watch the show, you definitely saw those gifs of Rose crying on the other side of a wall on Tumblr). The usual "introducing" on-screen text, however, did not include "as the Doctor." We know that the ending was reshot, with Piper's strange scene added later, though we don't exactly know why Ncuti left the show and ended his tenure as the Fifteenth Doctor so soon.
It was announced last week that AMC Plus had won the streaming rights for Doctor Who, with 175 episodes set to begin streaming on June 11. A Christmas special is set to air at the end of this year, though details and Doctors remain to be seen.
While you wait for the Doctor Who Christmas special, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming TV shows to fill out your watchlist.
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Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.
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