News Doctor Who Doctor Who Christmas Special Canceled as BBC Changes Gears Russell Davies weighs in as the BBC puts Doctor Who up for “competitive tender” By Molly Templeton | Published on June 10, 2026 Screencap: BBC Comment 0 Share New Share Screencap: BBC Last October, we got the most promising bit of Doctor Who news anyone had heard in a minute: The Doctor would return at Christmas 2026, in a new special written by Russell T. Davies. Today, the BBC announced that the Christmas special is canceled, and that both writer/showrunner Russell T. Davies and production company Bad Wolf are leaving the series. It’s another huge shift for a series which just went through a huge shift during its partnership-with-Disney era (an era which is still yet to bring US viewers the spinoff series The War Between the Land and the Sea). The BBC has put the show out for “competitive tender,” which—as The Hollywood Reporter explained—is “a formal, open process in which the BBC invites independent production companies to pitch for production rights on an existing series, and they then pick a favorite.” Basically, production companies can now compete to win the hand of the long-running series and its broadcast owners. On Instagram, Davies wrote: And so GOODBYE from me to Doctor Who but HELLO to a big new future for the show, as the BBC announces it’s putting the show out to tender. As a result, there won’t be a Christmas Special – we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it. You’ll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who… but you’ll be waiting for MORE Doctor Who than a one-off. So it’s worth it! For the record: there was no script, I never wrote it, and no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor. You may disagree; fine, sit in that chair and wait to be proved right. You’ll wait a lonnng time Now I’m as excited as anyone to see what comes next! Will they keep the theme tune? Will they lose the blue box? Will they bring back the Drahvin?! It’s all up for grabs, which is so Doctor Who, exciting and unpredictable and new! Here comes the future, vworp vworp What a line: “we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it.” A statement on the official Doctor Who website says: After careful consideration, the BBC, Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have collectively decided not to go ahead with the previously announced Doctor Who Christmas episode. This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one-off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory. The last full season of Doctor Who, which saw Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor regenerate into Billie Piper, aired in 2025. As of tomorrow, you’ll be able to watch much of Doctor Who—Disney seasons aside—on AMC+.[end-mark] The post <i>Doctor Who</i> Christmas Special Canceled as BBC Changes Gears appeared first on Reactor.