Top Gear falls below 500,000 and is beaten by dementia doco
Top Gear last night fell below 500,000 for the first time since moving to Nine.
The show, which was a repeat, delivered an audience of just 485,000, according to preliminary overnight metro ratings from OzTam.
It was even beaten in the timeslot by a documentary about dementia on ABC1.
Top Gear’s number was lower than the audience average for all but one of the nine series aired by SBS. The first time SBS aired Top Gear in late 2005, it averaged 415,000, before hitting a high point of 954,000. Nine outbid SBS for the BBC Worldwide show in February last year. But after initially strong ratings, the show has gone through a significant decline in recent months.
Last night’s performance was not helped by strong performances by Seven’s My Kitchen Rules (1.604m) , which finishes tonight and Winners & Losers (1.389m). Top Gear was also beaten by NCIS (1.174m) on Ten and dementia doco The Long Goodbye on ABC1 (561,000).
The rest of the night had few bright spots for Nine with only Nine News and A Current Affair rating above 1m. The much-repeated Two And A Half Men rated just 641,000 while double episodes of the Big Bang theory recovered only slightly to 814,000 and 813,000.
Tuesday’s top 15:
- My Kitchen Rules Seven 1.604m
- Winners and Losers Seven 1.389m
- Seven News Seven 1.284m
- Today Tonight Seven 1.207m
- NCIS Ten 1.174m
- Home and Away Seven 1.076m
- Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation Ten 1.076m
- Nine News Nine 1.056m
- A Current Affair Nine 1.003m
- ABC News ABC 0.982m
- The Big Bang Theory – 7pm Nine 0.814m
- The Big Bang Theory Nine 0.813m
- The 7PM Project Ten 0.762m
- NCIS: Los Angeles Ten 0.744m
- 7:30 ABC 0.654m
Tuesday’s share:
- Seven: 26.6%
- Ten: 19.5%
- Nine: 16.6%
- ABC1: 11.2%
- GO!: 4.8%
- SBS1: 4.0%
- 7TWO 3.6%
- 7mate: 3.5%
- Eleven: 3.3%
- Gem: 2.6%
- ABC2: 1.9%
- One: 1.6%
- SBS2: 0.7%
- ABC3: 0.6%
- ABC News 24: 0.6%
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The dementia documentary was excellent though. Tough watch but very touching.
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I hope the programming departments at all the commercial networks take note: you can’t afford to screw around your audience anymore, because they won’t put up with it – not even for a (former) phenomenon like Top Gear.
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What will 9’s excuse be this time? Oh, I forgot, it’s not excuses is it – they’re serving a particular demographic. Not killing the show in Australia. Oh, no. And they wonder why bittorrent is so popular. Extra Top Gear footage with no ads? In half an hour less time? Why would anyone do that?
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New vs. Old.
Most Top Gear fans (me included) would own last nights special on DVD.
Without ads.
The way Top Gear’s production was intended.
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My god – make it stop!
TopGear is still an excellent show – it’s Channel 9 that blows. I am an avid fan and watch every episode as soon as I can get my hands on in… from the internet… where it’s ad-free and current.
Watching reviews about old cars that you’ve already seen is a bit rubbish. Most fans have DVDs with the Challenges which is really the only thing you can sensibly watch over and over.
Can’t wait till SBS buys it back again!!!
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I have seen that episode at least 3 times on TV, what a joke.
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Too many bloody ads
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That just goes to show how concerned and interest people are in knowing more about Dementia. People are searching for quality, informative documentaries that can assist them. Great news for “The Long Goodbye”. People have very real concerns and you are addressing them! Nicole Graham Director of Emergency ID Australia makers of Medical Jewellery which many with Dementia are wearing to give them and their families great peace of mind.
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That’s mad.
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It was a repeat- what do you expect!!!
I switched on to watch it and noticed it was a repeat so switched channel.
Play new episodes and I bet the numbers change. If there arn’t any then maybe channel nine should invest in some new content until a new series starts.
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I’m amazed the Channel Nine publicity department hasn’t released a presser declaring “Top Gear Watched by 2 Million viewers!” (800k watched the first repeat, 650k watched the second, 300k watched it on Go!, etc, etc…)
Interestingly the promo I saw for last night’s umpteenth repeat of the Vietnam special didn’t mention the word Vietnam… it was billed as the “Top Gear Motorcycle Challenge”, which is a blatant but ultimately pointless deception.
Even a casual TG viewer would recognise the footage and steer clear of the attempted con.
The Channel Nine promo department must be running out of lies by now, surely…?
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How many times can they drag this episode out for chrissake.
Is it just me or did I count 11 ads in one break
I used to enjoy eaking out the series and waiting every week to sit with my fave bevvie to watch but with channel 9 basically giving me the finger every second week and the ridiculous desparate money grab of ads as they know they are killing it I now download everything I need without ads .
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“It was even beaten in the timeslot by a documentary about dementia on ABC1.”
May be people aren’t as stupid as you think.
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I don’t remember seeing that Doco
You people are very judgemental.
ABC ran something about people with dementia.
Channel 9 ran something for people with dementia – (they would have already forgotten they’d seen it before anyway).
I think it’s nice to see that 9 actually program their network for the demented.
It’s what the Packer family would have wanted.
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(edited).
1. Nine need to sack their programming dept.
2. They need to sack their promos dept.
3. They need to sack some of their voice over talent… One NO talent sounds like a bear shouting at you with razor blades in his throat and then they finish the promo off with a female voice to try and soften it up a bit and be more conversational…. FAIL.
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oh poo Tim.. you edited the best part out
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9 – Why do you choose to actively dissappoint your Top Gear faithful by running repeats repeatedly. There goes the dedicated time and program loyalty you were striving for. You are ruining the experience for viewers!
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@Al nice 1. 🙂
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The collapse of Top Gear’s audience is probably one of the greatest examples ever of a network completely mishandling a program by treating its audience with contempt. I have barely watched an episode since it moved to Nine, but watched it every week on SBS. Will they learn any lessons from it though? I suspect not.
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I love Top Gear, but I can’t stand 9.
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RE sofakingwetoddit
13 Apr 11
3:33 pm
(edited).
1. Nine need to sack their programming dept.
2. They need to sack their promos dept.
3. They need to sack some of their voice over talent… One NO talent sounds like a bear shouting at you with razor blades in his throat and then they finish the promo off with a female voice to try and soften it up a bit and be more conversational…. FAIL.
WHAT HAPPENED TO KEN SPARKES THE BEST VOICEOVER GUY IN THE
BUSINESS ?
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Full disclosure – as a former SBS employee news of Top Gear’s faltering fortunes on Nine comes with some quiet satisfaction.
As Jeff says – SBS treated the audience with respect and the ad structure was far from disruptive – even when it went to in-program advertising.
With the fans ready, willing and able to download these episodes from torrent sites, in high-definition and without ads at all, you simply can’t afford to mess around with content anymore. I remain amazed at how many TV execs still fail to grasp how quickly audience behaviours have changed.
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@CHRIS FLETCHER
The station, as so many other posters have pointed out has decided its’ core audience is ‘bogan’, therefore it has either dismissed or lost most of its credible talent.
You might say Nine has lost its balls…. what’s left is: “How to flog a Program and suffocate your audience”
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