Be Excellent To Each Other

With three racing car drivers on the lineup the show is going to be somewhat different, I suspect.

Or it's going to try and be exactly the same.

Oh.

I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. There's only two of them, and they're both trying to be Clarkson.

It was meh.

On the other hand, actual original top gear took several seriesesesss to get going, so happy to give this the benefit of the doubt for a few episodes.

Fo sho, I'll keep watching.

I'm not convinced LeBlanc is going to be a good presenter.

FTFY

Heh yes fair point.

And I love le blanc so fingers crossed

It seemed to pick up right where old Top Gear left off. Something I'll keep on watching because it promises to be entertaining but it isn't very entertaining.

Extra Gear was actually pretty good.

We got 29 minutes into this before I had to turn it off.

I managed 0 seconds.

I have better things to do with my time than subject myself to Chris Evans. And potential Eddie Jordan.

I managed to the end of the bit with the viper, I did not enjoy the experience. Youtube has way better car shows with a fraction of the budget these idiots lob around.

No Eddie Jordan, if that helps.

Chris Evans was talking on the radio show today as if he'd been carried from the studio aloft the heads of millions of adoring TV viewers who had rushed to greet him after broadcast, throwing riches at his feet and offering up their first burns and fatted lambs as sacrifice.

He was gushing around his own TV show so much that I thought he might drown.

Anyway, the bit I didn't manage to mentally tune out when it was on the TV sounded like Chris Evans was trying to do a Jeremy Clarkson impression. The pattern of delivery was annoying and frustrating in its similarity as in my head it was also playing in the background in Clarkson's voice.

It was ok... just top gear

It has zero Clarkson and Hammond in it so a non-zero chance of me watching it at some point.

I liked Matt in it, early days i suppose

Here's something I completely missed from the final episode of Top Gear with the old hosts (well, 66.6% of them)...

We're not going to talk about it

Bravo

It would appear Evans is being a bit defensive.

That said, literally everything I've read online about the new show has been brutal.

A FACT he doesn't feel the need to point out is that in the last series of Top Gear the lowest viewing figures were for episode 7 with 5.8million, so 5.6 isn't super.
Also the opening episode last year was up against Call the Midwife and got 7.2 million viewers, while new Top Gear went up against a repeat of the Antiques Roadshow.

"series 1 episode 23"

Cripes. I watched it. It was like this folk covers you get of rock songs.

Also, of course viewing figures were huge - it was the first one and people wanted to see what they did with it. Week 2 viewing figures will be the ones that count.

I added some numbers into my post I just made.

Also I've just read this from BBC news: "However, it was still the second most watched programme of the day on any channel (after Countryfile)".

Countryfile?!

I like countryfile. Perfect Sunday telly. Not that I ever get to watch it.

I might fire up the iPlayer at lunch and see what this Top Gear is like. The TFI reboot was dire though, so I'm not confident

Those tweets (more the quantity than the idea that he is defending his work) don't cover him in glory. He is overprotesting, and just because x% of people tuned in to have a look really doesn't mean that they thought it was any good.

Oh God.

Not much better?

The show as a whole was better, but Evans was worse and the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car bit was dire.

There's still just something wrong with it, but hopefully they'll figure it out.

Didn't Chris Evens get the production as well? So if you don't like him or his style then its probably not going to get better?

Predictably, viewing figures plummeted.

Relatedly : Eddie Jordan.

I actually didn't mind Eddie. I'm not sure why they didn't let him drive, though. That was either a joke or the didn't want an actual racing driver in the seat for the bit at the end.

Overnight viewing figures are down 35% from the opening week.

Ruh-roh.

What's the normal drop-off between episodes 1 and 2 of a new series?

It varies, as you'd expect. The last two series went up a little, before that it went down a little. It tends to stay the broadly the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Top_Gear_episodes

Yeah, nothing like the drop off here. Ouch.

Weather will play a part yesterday i think

"Sunday evening's figures give the second episode of Top Gear a 14% share of all television viewing in its timeslot.
BBC One's Antiques Roadshow attracted more viewers than the motoring show - with 4.2 million people tuning in."

That's from a BBC news article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36458510

Evans doesn't think it's relevant, though:

"Overnight television viewing figures for Top Gear have never been less relevant. Obviously some newspapers prefer to live in the past." (from his Twitter account).

Weather probably did play a part, but I'm not so sure it will have played enough of a part to justify that level of drop.

I don't think EJ is going to have put many people off, and the drop in audience is a reaction to last week's poor show.
This week was a noticeable improvement, though Chris Evans is still dire and I'm not sure what Sharleen Spiteri was doing to get invited. I assume she's one of Chris's mates.

He fancies her and is really creepy about it.

Texas were on TFI Friday a lot so I think they are mates.

Evans is starting to look a bit of dick with the tweets about viewing figures. I don't watch it and I'm thinking he looks desperate.

Yeah, the Jordan was tongue in cheek. Although, as previously stated, I'm not going to watch something that puts me at risk of seeing not only Evans being an automasturbating dick, but also Jordan being a clownish buffoon man.

It is growing on me now, quite enjoyed the 3rd episode

Same here, but it had about 75% less Chris Evans and more of the people that can actually present a show.
The Star... section is complete bobbins still. It was the least popular part of the old show, and they've found a way to make it worse.

they had to make it different I suppose.

it is just away to in interview guests i suppose.

Right? It seemed to go on forever.

I've not watched a single episode of this new series, and I'd not watched the last few series of the old one either.

Grew tired of it.

Someone on Reddit pointed out that "Antiques Roadshow" would be a good name for the new show presented by Clarkson et al over on Amazon

Veneer!

Not sure where but "Wacky Racists" was definitely the best suggestion I heard.