Hansen
If you haven’t seen Top Gear’s episode 2 you can catch the synopsis right here (it’s filled with spoilers, obviously…) We thought it was much better than the awkward first episode, but still has plenty of room for improvement. But regardless of its quality or content the British viewers have spoken and they’ve spoken LOUDLY. Straight from the horse’s mouth, the BBC reported
Top Gear audience drops by a third on second episode.
Last week’s numbers were an average of 4.4 million television viewers but when all forms of media were taken into account (i.e. Player) the show actually grossed over 9 million viewers, making it the “Strongest launch.”
However, the second episode only drew in an average of 2.8 million television viewers, a drop by more than a third. Chris Evans mentioned the figures, as implied by the first week, would be higher when the on-demand service are included. He tweeted:
Overnight television viewing figures for Top Gear have never been less relevant. Obviously some newspapers prefer to live in the past.
— Chris Evans (@achrisevans) June 6, 2016
The way Top Gear is being viewed is repositioning the way television is consumed. Last week 9 millions viewers. This week we shall see.
— Chris Evans (@achrisevans) June 6, 2016
It’s true we should place extra emphasis on the combined numbers of both television viewers and on-demand services. We are living in an age where cord-cutting and streaming is becoming, if not already, the state of today’s television. However, the massive drop in television viewership may indicate the same trend in the iPlayer on-demand service. Chris Evans may be delusional here in mentioning television viewership has never been less relevant, then again, his job is on the line here.
There’s reason for the Top Gear cast to be optimistic as only two shows are currently in the books, and two data points don’t suggest a trend. However, each weekly episode exerts greater and greater pressure on them to outperform, as they can’t continuously be beaten by BBC One’s Antiques Roadshow.
If some of our readers or the droves of Youtube thumbs-downers have any say in the matter, the answer to the low ratings might just be Chris Evans himself, or perhaps the viewers boycotting the new show out of respect to the old Top Gear trio: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. However two things are for certain: First, the old Top Gear trio is never coming back to the BBC as CH&M have more creative freedom in the process in their new home and they’re getting paid 10 times more than when they were under BBC’s watch, as suggested by Evans. Second, there’s a large magnifying glass over Top Gear’s head now more than ever. If next week’s show continues to trend lower, either the show must shuffle things around or the hosts may have to start thinking about another career.
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