BBC Top Gear 2017 Thread

[Tyre Smoke]

Hmm. I liked TGT, to the point where I was waiting for Friday. I never missed. I like CHM, and their humour, forced, scripted or off the cuff.
A lot of other people clearly do too. Hence their popularity.

This season of TG has been carried by Matt. Harris I can't take to. Something about his arrogance, which admittedly he toned down along with his aggression as the series progressed, I dislike. Rory is just there to make the numbers up I think. To do the Mayesque bits - banging on about driving a Renault Twingo and dressing up like a ship's captain,etc. That doesn't work.

To sum up, I can't wait for TGT to start up again, I can wait for TG. But will watch both.

[Driver101]

768 said:

How many does it have? You think not 8 million then?

https://www.emarketer.com/m/Article/Amazon-Prime-H...

Netflix is the biggest service by a huge margin and it's got 6m users. Reports suggest that Amazon has 1/3 of that. Barb show about 9m watched Sky tv in the last quarter of 2016.

Looking at some of Sky's viewing figures from April 2017 over a 7 day count Crystal Palace v Arsenal was watched by 0.68m. The most watched TV shows were only 0.79m at the very best.

I'm sure if the viewing figures were as amazing as The Daily Mail said Amazon wouldn't be so secretive. The Daily Mail's viewing numbers is higher than other sources predict Amazon has subscribers. Their UK viewing count for TGT is also higher than the biggest shows on Amazon in the US. Other reports suggested that TGT managed around 1.5m viewers in total, yet The Daily Mail get 2.3m in the UK alone.

Given all other predictions and viewing numbers of subscription TV is a fraction of The Daily Mail's numbers I'm not buying it in the slightest. The paper is hardly known for its accuracy.

Edited by Driver101 on Tuesday 25th April 09:56

[Jonesy23]

durbster said:

Yep, the lead script editor of one of the most successful TV programmes of the last 20 years is definitely overrated and has no quality.

At one point there were ideas and quality, but that was a long time ago.


As for the viewer numbers, the raw stats (where they exist) also make no mention of aggregate numbers including the repeats, time shifting or streaming views. Last weekend probably had a lot of shifted viewers for example.

But I honestly think that if the TGT numbers were as good as some claim they wouldn't have resorted to the level of saturation advertising that they did.

[loudlashadjuster]

Sample size of one I admit, but I've heard absolutely no-one talk about TGT after a minor flurry around the first episode, which many didn't/couldn't even watch.

[ClockworkCupcake]

I must admit that had I taken out an Amazon Prime subscription just for TGT, I would probably have felt short-changed. As it was, I've been a member of Prime since before Amazon Video was even a thing, so for me it was "free" in effect, and it was worth every penny of that.

Edit: In much the same way as Top Gear is "free" inasmuch as you're paying for a TV License anyway.

[bodhi]

I've found the opposite, most of the old TG fans watched (and enjoyed) TGT, only conversation I've heard around new TG is "I didn't watch it".

Mind you I still haven't watched the last 2 episodes of new TG, and after how absolutely average the ones I did watch were, I'm struggling for motivation to finish the series. To paraphrase Tenacious D - it is not the greatest motoring show in the world....it is just a tribute. It passes the time for me, nothing more.

[Tuna]

bodhi said:

I've found the opposite, most of the old TG fans watched (and enjoyed) TGT, only conversation I've heard around new TG is "I didn't watch it".

Mind you I still haven't watched the last 2 episodes of new TG, and after how absolutely average the ones I did watch were, I'm struggling for motivation to finish the series. To paraphrase Tenacious D - it is not the greatest motoring show in the world....it is just a tribute. It passes the time for me, nothing more.

Have to disagree.. TGT got way too smug and self-referential and I can't really remember a single report that they did. TG found its feet and actually talked about cars - things like the Dubai trip were worth talking about the next day and they covered a decent range of car-related stuff.

[Jonesy23]

bodhi said:

I've found the opposite, most of the old TG fans watched (and enjoyed) TGT, only conversation I've heard around new TG is "I didn't watch it".

Mind you I still haven't watched the last 2 episodes of new TG, and after how absolutely average the ones I did watch were, I'm struggling for motivation to finish the series. To paraphrase Tenacious D - it is not the greatest motoring show in the world....it is just a tribute. It passes the time for me, nothing more.

At least you're consistent. My experience has been the exact opposite in every detail.

If I didn't know better I'd have thought you were involved with TGT and were busy shilling for it.

[hyphen]

bodhi said:

only conversation I've heard around new TG is "I didn't watch it".

Ratings reflect this, last two episodes got 1.6 and 1.9 million viewers. "No episode in the era fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May had fewer than 2 million viewers."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39691...

Speaking personally I have only seen the first or two as 'haven't got around to it'. Reading on here it seems to be good and may even better TGT but it is just low priority compared to all the other stuff out there. I think knowing LeBlanc is a professional Actor doesn't help.

Edited by hyphen on Tuesday 25th April 12:08

[Driver101]

I watched both series in full. TG was a good step up on TGT. Neither was perfect, but TGT just had too many parts that failed.

I'm not sure why I keep reading the TG or TGT threads. After two lengthy threads it's just the same people saying the same things over and over.

There's a few people that appear to think it's blasphemy that they might like the two shows. Credit to them though, they are relentless in their ambition to let everyone know that.

[bodhi]

Jonesy23 said:

At least you're consistent. My experience has been the exact opposite in every detail.

If I didn't know better I'd have thought you were involved with TGT and were busy shilling for it.

Lol? I liked TGT so I am automatically a shill for Amazon/CHM etc?

O....K.....

I have no horse in this race at all, I was more than happy to sit down and watch new TG, in the hope we'd get 2 good car shows, and have something to watch whilst they are putting Season 2 of TGT together. Instead we have one good but incredibly chidlish "car show", and a more serious but incredibly dull alternative. Personally I would take childishness over tedium any day of the week, but YMMV.

[Yipper]

durbster said:

Yipper said:

TGT got ~2m UK viewers, about the same as TG.

Roughly a third of TGT viewers chose to sign up specifically to Amazon Prime at £40-80 a year, while TG is effectively near-free (a tiny slice of the non-optional license fee).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4205948/Tw...

Of course, TGT has been a flop, too. Clarkson's global audience has collapsed by roughly -95% since he left the BBC, while global viewership for TGT declined roughly -50% from the first to last episode, as viewers switched off in disappointment.

Have you got a better source than the Mail? They don't cite any source for the figures in the article and, let's face it, generally just make st up half the time.

I guess the test for TGT will be renewal time, whether all those who signed up last year will do so again. I don't think I will. I was disappointed with TGT and there isn't much else on Amazon Prime that's compelling me to renew.

Lol.

Good old Daily Mail snobbery...

It quite clearly states in the article the TGT figures are sourced from GfK, one of the world's "big 3" and most famous independent research houses.

[hairykrishna]

TGT felt like a massive missed opportunity to me. It could have been so much better. TG on the other hand is exceeding my expectations and getting better as time goes on.

[Driver101]

Yipper said:

durbster said:

Yipper said:

TGT got ~2m UK viewers, about the same as TG.

Roughly a third of TGT viewers chose to sign up specifically to Amazon Prime at £40-80 a year, while TG is effectively near-free (a tiny slice of the non-optional license fee).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4205948/Tw...

Of course, TGT has been a flop, too. Clarkson's global audience has collapsed by roughly -95% since he left the BBC, while global viewership for TGT declined roughly -50% from the first to last episode, as viewers switched off in disappointment.

Have you got a better source than the Mail? They don't cite any source for the figures in the article and, let's face it, generally just make st up half the time.

I guess the test for TGT will be renewal time, whether all those who signed up last year will do so again. I don't think I will. I was disappointed with TGT and there isn't much else on Amazon Prime that's compelling me to renew.

Lol.

Good old Daily Mail snobbery...

It quite clearly states in the article the TGT figures are sourced from GfK, one of the world's "big 3" and most famous independent research houses.

So because they write a paragraph stating their data came from GfK it must be true? It doesn't even have a link or give any evidence to back up their statement. What's to say it isn't an error or they've misunderstood the data?

2.3m viewers on a subscription service is massive numbers. Use Barb and you'll find Sky peak at 0.79m for their biggest tv shows.

Amazon US gets 2.1m for their top show. Not a chance we are close to 2.3m in the UK for TGT. Early reports said TGT was less that 1.5m in total.

Just reading GfK's data, It comes from 2500 people signing up and filling in a survey. That doesn't sound too accurate to me.

Edited by Driver101 on Tuesday 25th April 12:50

[ClockworkCupcake]

hyphen said:

Ratings reflect this, last two episodes got 1.6 and 1.9 million viewers. "No episode in the era fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May had fewer than 2 million viewers."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39691...

True, but the article does say "In the age of catch-up services such as iPlayer, the whole issue of viewing figures gets rather complicated. So, to keep things simple, we'll just stick to how many people watched each episode of this series live, on the night it was first broadcast."

I would imagine that only captures a proportion of the viewers. If you are going to compare like-with-like it needs to be all time-delayed and iPlayer views too, given that TGT is a totally on-demand programme.

[McAndy]

ClockworkCupcake said:

True, but the article does say "In the age of catch-up services such as iPlayer, the whole issue of viewing figures gets rather complicated. So, to keep things simple, we'll just stick to how many people watched each episode of this series live, on the night it was first broadcast."

I would imagine that only captures a proportion of the viewers. If you are going to compare like-with-like it needs to be all time-delayed and iPlayer views too, given that TGT is a totally on-demand programme.

Exactly what I was going to say. Viewing figures are currently meaningless.

[Tuna]

McAndy said:

ClockworkCupcake said:

True, but the article does say "In the age of catch-up services such as iPlayer, the whole issue of viewing figures gets rather complicated. So, to keep things simple, we'll just stick to how many people watched each episode of this series live, on the night it was first broadcast."

I would imagine that only captures a proportion of the viewers. If you are going to compare like-with-like it needs to be all time-delayed and iPlayer views too, given that TGT is a totally on-demand programme.

Exactly what I was going to say. Viewing figures are currently meaningless.

Especially when TG had a mid-season break and then started up again over Easter. Not ideal.

Personally I don't care about viewing figures - if I did I'd be watching Eastenders and Ant and ****ing Dec. Both shows were worth watching, one slightly more consistent and rewarding than the other. That's how I felt and viewing figures aren't going to change that

[Adam B]

loudlashadjuster said:

I think that TGT's problem was that it indulged the worst of Clarkson (and who knows who else) to the detriment of everything else. With Amazon giving them a free rein and without the guidance/constraints of a BBC behind them, they believed their own press a bit too much and the whole thing was just overplayed.

Porter's non-TG work is invariably good so while I'm not saying it was all him, I'm inclined to believe that he was largely responsible for the template of TG humour which worked so well.

agreed, TG is not perfect but I was surprised how TGT managed to take 3 seasoned professionals and make them so stilted to the extent MLB and Harris look better. Reid understandably a bit try hard but he may improve.

TGT nadir - the jumpers spelling PENIS - how did any adult script writer think that wasn't anything other than crushingly dull and cringingly embarrassing? At least May looked suitably sheepish.

Will still watch both, but TGT through the regular faceplants

[McAndy]

TGT took the typical Hollywood sequel approach:

"What did people like about the first?"
"Toilet humour, casual stereotyping and explosions."
"Hmm, what shall we do next?"
"MOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!!!"

Overcooked and now somewhat shrivelled, IMO.

[sandman77]

From the BBC article above it would seem that we have had all we are getting this year. Next series to air in spring 2018.