Alan Tyler, Acting Controller of BBC Entertainment Commissioning, today made the following statement regarding the all-new Top Gear (Series/Season 23).
“We are delighted that this was the strongest launch episode of Top Gear since 2010 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.
“With lots more adventures on the way in this new series, including a continental challenge with the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, a luxury car contest in Ireland, stunning review films, plenty of power laps and many more great guests taking on the all-new rallycross track, we are looking forward to Chris, Matt and the gang bringing more of the all-new Top Gear to our audiences.”
With a consolidated audience of 6.42m, Sunday’s Series 23 launch episode is on par in terms of volume with episode one in 2015 (6.41m) and just ahead of the 2015 series average (6.32m).
It was the strongest launch episode since series 19 (6.66m – 27 Jan 2013, including simulcast viewing on BBC HD) with time-shifted viewing adding an additional 2m viewers to the original live+vosdal figure.
At 28.8%, share is well up on the 2015 launch episode (20.8%) and 2015 series average (21.8%)In terms of share it was the highest for a launch episode since 2009 (31.7% – 21 Jun 2009) and the highest share achieved since August 2009.
So far, there have been 1.75 million requests for the programme on iPlayer (up to Friday 3 June only), which is on par with episode one of the 2015 series over the same number of days.
A further 0.9m (overnight figure) watched the narrative repeat on BBC Two on Monday 30 May.
Episode one was the fifth most watch programme on TV last week (behind Britain’s Got Talent, Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale).It was BBC Two’s biggest audience since the final episode of the last series of Top Gear (June 2015).
In terms of share it is the highest for an individual programme TXing in peak since The Great British Bake Off in 2013. (Source: BBC)
Stay tuned as we continue to monitor the renewal status of Top Gear Series 24…
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