The network has beaten rating records with The Day of the Doctor episode.

Doctor Who special episode The Day of the Doctor averaged 2.4 million viewers, setting a record for BBC America. The network, celebrating its 50^th anniversary of the TV series over the weekend, attracted a sizable audience in the US.

Though this amount is not especially big in the States, it is a record for BBC America and about eight times bigger than its most popular show of the previous week (294,000 tuned in for an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation).

The special TV show starred three actors playing different generations of the Doctor -Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt- as well as cameos from former Doctor Tom Baker and future star Peter Capaldi.

Doctor Who fans were also seen on Twitter. On Saturday, BBC was the No. 1 cable network on the microblogging service while setting a record on Tumblr with the highest level of activity of any televised event ever, including Super Bowls.

Apart from celebrating the 50^th anniversary, BBC America used The Day of the Doctor episode as a platform to launch new BBC drama Atlantis. The new series also broke a record by attracting an average audience of 838,000 viewers, getting the best ratings for a series launch on the network.

Meanwhile, more details of the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, The Time of the Doctor, have been released by the BBC. The episode will see the Doctor and assistant Clara, played by Jenna Coleman, heading to a quiet backwater planet to learn what some strange signals mean for his fate and that of the universe.