- Ratings have the third episode of America's Top Gear attracting 1.304 million viewers on the History cable channel.
- That is just 29,000 more viewers than the second episode — more or less within the margin of error for the sampling.
- Against tough competition, the lack of audience erosion is encouraging for Top Gear.
HOLLYWOOD, California — The good news for the American version of Top Gear is that its third episode attracted an audience slightly larger than what the second episode did. According to Web site TV by the Numbers, this past Sunday a total of 1.304 million viewers tuned in to watch the third episode on the History cable channel. For all intents and purposes that's identical to the 1.275 million viewers audience that watched episode two.
But it's better news in the context of the show's competition. After all, NBC's Sunday Night Football featured one of the best games of the season: the Pittsburgh Steelers' dramatic 13-10 victory over division rivals the Baltimore Ravens. And over on AMC, the season finale of the The Walking Dead series was shown. Holding your own against Troy Polamalu's spectacular defensive play for the Steelers and The Walking Dead's zombie apocalypse is an encouraging ratings performance.
Incidentally the Steelers/Ravens struggle attracted a staggering 22.509 million viewers. And The Walking Dead snagged a thick 5.972 million — truly awesome for a basic cable show.
Less encouragingly, Top Gear continues to fail to hold onto the audience handed to it by its lead-in, Ice Road Truckers. Ice Road Truckers roped in 2.132 million viewers on History at 9:00 p.m. (EST) before handing off to Top Gear at 10:00 p.m. That means between the end of Ice Road Truckers and beginning of Top Gear, at least 800,000 people (about 39 percent of the IRT audience) changed the channel or turned off the TV altogether.
Another worrying sign for Top Gear is that the data indicates a tenth of a rating point drop in the desirable-to-advertisers 18-49 demographic.
The fourth episode of America's Top Gear will find itself in a different competitive environment next Sunday night. Without a new episode of The Walking Dead available, AMC will be running Bing Crosby's 1954 film White Christmas. And the Sunday Night Football match-up on NBC will have the Michael Vick-led Philadelphia Eagles facing off against the less-than-fearsome (but lately resurgent) Dallas Cowboys.
Inside Line says: We're still waiting for TG's Adam Ferrara, Tanner Foust and Rutledge Wood to make us really laugh. Or thrill us. Or something. The Cowboys may be patsies, but Vick is so spectacular this year we may just stick with the NFL. — Lee Pray, Correspondent
Add A Comment »
torque63 says:
02:13 PM, 12/09/2010
Yeah, I don't feel bad about knocking the show, and it has nothing to do with brit vs american, race (where did that come from?), clarkson, or anything else. It is simply, by any standard you care to choose, a crappy show. To say it's the best american car show is like saying that having a heart attack in your sleep is the best way to die. Well, yeah, but it still sucks.
compressor says:
10:52 AM, 12/09/2010
To me it seems they were told to emulate the chemistry of the other guys from the UK to a tee. You can almost match them up to their counterparts. This won't work.
Also, all the jokes seem like they were memorized the night before.
I hope this does figure out how to be good as I will never say no to another car show, but as it is, it is kind of embarassing to watch.
chlevan says:
09:01 AM, 12/09/2010
I agree, Adam Corolla would be good for this show. If you are going for laughs, you need people that relate well to the person making the jokes. If not, it'll have quick laughs and fall to the wayside. Tim Allen would be good for this show as well. Chemistry is important, but sometimes, it is who is on there that makes people watch.
dmpete says:
08:29 AM, 12/09/2010
All these morons trashing the American Top Gear, need to clean the crap out of their eyes, it is actually a pretty good show, not great, but good w/ the chance of being great. The first two seasons of UK TG blowed, these guys have had three episodes. Chill, they will get there chemistry. All these lemmings who would fall off a cliff if clarkson asked them too need to go somewhere else, turn the damn channel if you don't want to watch, but pipe down if all you have is it's not as good as the UK version, spare me.
ronnjc says:
10:48 PM, 12/08/2010
I agree. When the UK version start talking trash about American brands, I turn it off too. Those gys don't know crap about American cars. They only know the latest Honda Fit numbers. Who would buy that pile of garbage?
dingowatson says:
08:03 PM, 12/08/2010
Getting a little better. First and second episodes I had no laughs. Third episode was much more entertaining. Faust jumping that giant beast and breaking it was hilarious. Unfortunate that it couldn't be fixed for the final challenge. (no way he'd have beat Wood running) Host changes are probably still in order but I will continue watching and hoping. Jab at Brits was a good response to the years of insults from UK TG.
smallfield says:
07:03 PM, 12/08/2010
Best American car show
I think they improve with each one. After this one I think some day they may catch up to the Brits.
Give them a couple seasons to see please.
willewers says:
06:59 PM, 12/08/2010
I watched for the first time last night (Flying Coupe DeVille) and found myself laughing out loud a few times. Give these guys a chance to cultivate the chemistry. I now find myself looking ahead on the History Channel to DVR the show just like I did with Battle of The Supercars.
qdp says:
04:45 PM, 12/08/2010
Jay Leno can make difference.
4g63 says:
04:23 PM, 12/08/2010
i quit watching after watching the first episode for 30 minutes. it just can't compare to the british version. they don't even have enough live audience that they need to insert sound effect for when the audience applaud and when the audience being asked if they wanna see the lap and say "YEAH".. the "YEAH" is fake, the applause is fake... pathetic!