Nine to air full BBC2 episodes of TopGear

Channel Nine is not "ambitious but rubbish." It's just rubbish. Full stop.
 
Channel nine is rubbish, I'd agree with that, but I don't think that is why Top Gear is failing in the ratings.

Watching Top Gear on nine is not all fail. Yes, the ads are more intrusive than they were on SBS, but nine are at least showing full, un-cut episodes, which I don't think SBS did.

The problem(s) as I see it are:
1. Saturation and repeats. Since they stupidly spent so much on gaining the rights ($20 million), they obviously feel they need to use them (saturation) and unfortunately for nine, the powers-that-be at Top Gear HQ can't be bothered making more than a handful of episodes a year. Last year, there were only 8 new episodes (including the America 3 and Wise Men specials) .. that is barely 2 months of new programing a year. Repeats are inevitable if they are to get any return on their investment.

2. The show is dieing. Instead of being inventive and informative, it has become formulaic. You can be pretty sure when you tune in now (to a new episode) you will see one of them testing a car that 0.0001% of the population can afford on an airfield and judging it on how well it can be driven in a fashion that limits the lifespan of the tyres to a couple of miles; an interminably long interview with a guest where Clarkson strives to turn the discussion away from cars; some news; and an excessively expensive challenge where a lot of their budget (which could have been used to make more episodes) is blown on an attempt to emulate Frank Spencer in "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em".

3. Top Gear Australia. This is even worse than current Top Gear and lurks like that annoying little brother, with a handful of your baby photos, ready to jump in and spoil your 14th birthday party. A lot of the decline in the ratings has occurred after the airing of (the reprievingly short) 3rd series. I wouldn't mind betting that some of this decline is the result of people not willing to risk tuning into Top Gear, only to find they have committed to watching Top Gear Australia instead.
 
I wouldn't mind betting that some of this decline is the result of people not willing to risk tuning into Top Gear, only to find they have committed to watching Top Gear Australia instead.
:lol: Unfortunately I do know this to be true for some people who tuned in to last series' TGAU, didn't see what the fuss was about and now associate anything called Top Gear to be related to the show they watched. Quite daft I know, but the way Channel Nein have been flogging the TopGear logo around I can't blame people for getting confused.
 
That's karma for Channel 9 buying them off from SBS.

You can't mess around with a show that big and expect people to still watch it.
 
What a ridiculous article.

The weeks that the show has been moved out of prime time are the Easter non-ratings period.
 
^ By which calender did you make that assertion?

I didn't come on here to give you the late mail, but we all know Easter finished many weeks ago. Or did it? According to the Liturgical Calender, last Sunday was Pentecost (50th day after the resurrection), and it is Pentecost that officially marks the end of the Easter Season. So, assuming channel nine and top gear follow the Liturgical Year and assuming your assertion was correct, we should see top gear reappear on nine this week. But alas, no. It seems to have been relegated to Go! (a channel that gets lower ratings than SBS)
 
I'd be surprised too, if that wasn't the case ........ but we are talking about channel nine.
 
we all know Easter finished many weeks ago. Or did it?

Nine didn't say Top Gear would be back immediately after Easter - rather:

"Top Gear will return to a prime-time slot some time after Easter," a Nine spokesperson says.

So, Series 17 shown prime-time on Nine in the second-half of the year would meet that, even without any repeats on GO!
 
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