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BBC execs defend Top Gear’s second episode

Ratings for the second episode of new Top Gear drop in both the UK and Australia.

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BBC execs have defended the second episode of Top Gear after it slipped in numbers in the UK this week.

The show drew only 2.8m viewers on Sunday night, losing a third of its overnight audience week on week and holding only a 14% share of the audience. In comparison, last week’s series debut drew in an overnight audience of 4.3m, rising to 5.6m in consolidated figures.

Episode 2 is thought to have the lowest ratings for the show in a decade.

Alan Tyler, Acting Controller of BBC Entertainment Commissioning, said, “We are delighted that this was the strongest launch episode of Top Gear since 2013 with 6.4 million tuning in for the first programme of the new series. We are also thrilled that Top Gear was the most watched programme on BBC Two amongst 16-34s last week. Add to this a further 1.75m requests on BBC iPlayer to date, along with the highest audience share for an individual transmission (28.8%) since The Great British Bake Off in 2013, and it is clear that there is plenty to celebrate about the return of the nation’s favourite motoring show.

“Last night, Chris, Matt and the team once again brilliantly led BBC Two’s biggest show of the day, by some margin. It secured a peak audience of 3.3m, and the show again remained the most requested programme on BBC iPlayer.

Chris Evans again defended the show’s relaunch on social media.

“The way Top Gear is being viewed is repositioning the way television is consumed,” he wrote. “Last week 9 million viewers. This week we shall see.

“Overnight television viewing figures for Top Gear have never been less relevant. Obviously some newspapers prefer to live in the past.”

Evans previously said he would be “disappointed” if the show drew less than 5m viewers.

In the US episode one drew 530,000 on BBC America and 388,000 this week.

In Australia BBC advises the first episode attracted an overnight audience of 42,000 on BBC Knowledge, the highest rated non-sport programme in its slot on Foxtel.

So far, a total of 135,400 viewers have tuned in to watch episode one over the first week of broadcast (this figure will increase as consolidated figures come through for the repeat episodes).

Episode two attracted 27,000 viewers in overnight ratings.

Source: Digital Spy

5 Responses

  1. I’m not a car nut, but I watch Top Gear because it is always fun. The first episode of the new series was a little clunky, but the second was excellent. Considering they have a new cast, new producer and are trying to do things differently from the previous series while remaining familiar to the preexisting audience, obviously it will take time for them to find their feet. Loved the SUV challenge 🙂

  2. Chris Evans embarrassed himself on Twitter by trumpeting their overnight ratings last week and then saying this week, “Overnight television viewing figures for Top Gear have never been less relevant. Obviously some newspapers prefer to live in the past.”

  3. I enjoyed the second episode more than the first. I think it was partly as I was a little more used to the new ‘crew’ and secondly the challenge was fun and interesting to me. Nice to see them drive around in SUV’s too, which is vehicle Clarkson, Hammond and May gave very little attention over their years. The Macan was impressive.

  4. I think the first episode did the damage. If you’re going to shout, and insult the previous members of the show who were very popular then the results speak for itself

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