An older actor would be very surprising for the New Who crowd. I haven't kept up on the betting because, well, it doesn't much matter to me until I see the person in action -- but I'm sure he'd be just fine. Still love Helen Mirren for it though.

By the way, can anyone recall who was the favorite for the Eleventh Doctor? I thought I remembered Matt Smith being a surprise, but I can't remember who everyone tHOUGHT it'd be, beyond a lot of praying for Chiwetel Ejiofor.

I believe Matt Smith was a total surprise, although people pretty much knew that Eccleston and Tennant were going to be Nine and Ten before they were announced.

I don't remember who people thought Eleven was going to be, though. I think maybe Paterson Joseph was the name people had come to kinda/sorta expect. But I might be remembering that wrong.

What is going on here? Simple. They've made you (and us) pay attention to it. The hype machine in action. If you could get this much publicity to go on for several days instead of just one day, at no extra cost, why wouldn't you?

I think the manufactured nature of this announcement does kind of highlight how fast Moffat killed a lot of the natural excitement behind Doctor Who though. Other than your posts, Bobby, I don't think I've heard much of anything about the show or its actors in months -- including Karen Gillan shaving her head, which seems like it would have been huge geek news a year or two ago. His whole range of threats about the Comic-Con trailer getting online was pretty gross too.

Gene Wilder!

IWAN RHEON (codename Houdini because he could go invisible/disappear in the Misfits).

Also because he is moody eye candy and Welsh.