As I write we are in, yes you guessed it, the edit, just finishing the sound mix and the grade on the South America programme. Obviously you guys will be the judges, but we love it and we’re quite proud of it.
Visually we were blessed with some breathtaking back drops, courtesy of the Bolivian High Plains and the spine of Chile, and also the stars of the show – the vehicles, really put in an excellent performance. All the boys buy them unseen via the Bolivian internet Classifieds before they go out there, and as anyone who’s bought any car from the classifieds will tell you, you know what a gulf there can be between the pic in the ad and reality. Well, extrapolate that uncertainty a hundred times and then ask those vehicles to do a 1000 miles of rainforest, river crossings, Death Road, desert, volcanoes and dunes and you’ve got the recipe for a great car challenge.
Tonally then, this Special is a lot tougher than Vietnam and Botswana, and a lot more varied than the Pole trip. All the boys go through the mill – James with his fear of heights on Death Road, Richard with his fear of creepy crawlies (which he idiotically confessed to within earshot of us lot) and Jeremy with his fear of any sort of physical activity.
Throughout the journey nothing is easy. Even getting their vehicles off the floating pontoon they’re delivered on, and onto dry land, is a challenge film in itself. Then they have to build log bridges and cross them in the dark and so on – the shots of them getting up in the morning after four days of jungle life would make a great “Top Gear – the Shit Pinups Calendar”. And that’s before we get to Death Road and the altitude problems on the High Plains.
It’s just a great road movie, so I hope you enjoy. Spread the word though, that it starts at 7.45, not 8, because it’s a 75 minute show, so put the new Wii game away a bit earlier.
Thanks for all the comments on the last blog, which were as lively as ever, and in particular to “love2goC”, whose reply was quite humbling. Thank you to you for that.
I would just like to pick up on a particular point raised by one blogger – Viewing Figures – a subject which anyone in the office will tell you, is my forte, because any producer who says he doesn’t care abut them is a big fat liar. You pontificated at some length about how our average is down to just over 6 million, so allow me to pontificate back. Firstly, you now had to add in the HD Channel figures which are logged separately, and those are now running at around 500,000 per episode, having started on show 1 at around 300,000, so let’s average that at 400,000.
Then iPlayer. Each show averages a million views, (which apparently gives us 8 of the top ten slots in the BBC iPlayer figures for the year), so let’s be conservative and say that only half of those are people watching it for the first time. That percentage of original viewers on iPlayer by the way will be higher, because of the move to 9pm this run, but as I say, let’s be conservative.
Still, that gives us another 500,000 first time viewers, and added in with HD, a total of around 7 million, which is where we were originally. Finally, you have to add in the Disturbance Factor. We were at 9 for the first three shows, then 8.30, then 8, and so on, and those disruptive time shifts mean you still lose casual viewers, even with iPlayer around. I’d say a few hundred thousand easy – people for example who like to watch it as a family, and can never regain the opportunity.
Sorry to go on, but you don’t want to get me started on viewing figures. This also, by the way, contradicts the doom story about plummeting figures in the Daily Mail. There’s a surprise.
Anyway, see you next year and have a happy everything.
Open Car Bar
What do you think?
timur116 commented on this article
Tuesday March 9, 2010 at 7:54 pm
This series about Bolivia simply super
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BedderSix commented on this article
Monday March 15, 2010 at 10:29 am
To put this discussion into context, the BBC’s official statistics department have generously provided the definitive viewing figures for Top Gear in the UK…
Programme: Top Gear (Series 14)
Channel: BBC2
Episodes: 7
Start Date: 15-Nov-2009
End Date: 03-Jan-2010
Episode 1: 6.41 million
Episode 2: 6.19 million
Episode 3: 6.10 million
Episode 4: 6.09 million
Episode 5: 6.35 million
Episode 6: 7.07 million (“Bolivia special”)
Episode 7: 6.05 million
Average viewers: 6.32 million (Series 14, BBC2)
Programme: Top Gear (Series 14)
Channel: BBC HD
Episodes: 7
Start Date: 15-Nov-2009
End Date: 03-Jan-2010
Episode 1: 0.283 million
Episode 2: 0.285 million
Episode 3: 0.412 million
Episode 4: 0.196 million
Episode 5: 0.550 million
Episode 6: 0.378 million (“Bolivia special”)
Episode 7: 0.472 million
Average viewers: 0.368 million (Series 14, BBC HD)
Average total viewers: 6.688 million (Series 14, BBC2 + BBC HD)
Programme: Top Gear (Series 13)
Channel: BBC2
Episodes: 7
Start Date: 21-Jun-2009
End Date: 02-Aug-2009
Episode 1: 7.86 million
Episode 2: 7.00 million
Episode 3: 6.38 million
Episode 4: 6.80 million
Episode 5: 7.38 million
Episode 6: 7.69 million
Episode 7: 7.11 million
Average viewers: 7.17 million (Series 13)
Programme: Top Gear (Series 12)
Channel: BBC2
Episodes: 8
Start Date: 02-Nov-2008
End Date: 28-Dec-2008
Episode 1: 7.74 million
Episode 2: 7.57 million
Episode 3: 6.98 million
Episode 4: 7.15 million
Episode 5: 7.51 million
Episode 6: 7.33 million
Episode 7: 7.54 million
Episode 8: 6.70 million
Average viewers: 7.32 million (Series 12)
Programme: Top Gear (Series 11)
Channel: BBC2
Episodes: 6
Start Date: 22-Jun-2008
End Date: 27-Jul-2008
Episode 1: 6.72 million
Episode 2: 5.21 million
Episode 3: 5.78 million
Episode 4: 5.70 million
Episode 5: 6.65 million
Episode 6: 5.59 million
Average viewers: 5.94 million (Series 11)
Programme: Top Gear (Series 10)
Channel: BBC2
Episodes: 10
Start Date: 07-Oct-2007
End Date: 23-Dec-2007
Episode 1: 6.27 million
Episode 2: 5.53 million
Episode 3: 6.73 million
Episode 4: 6.84 million
Episode 5: 7.74 million
Episode 6: 7.24 million
Episode 7: 6.86 million
Episode 8: 8.35 million
Episode 9: 7.38 million
Episode 10: 7.15 million
Average viewers: 7.01 million (Series 10)
Programme: Top Gear (Series 9)
Channel: BBC2
Episodes: 6
Start Date: 28-Jan-2007
End Date: 04-Mar-2007
Episode 1: 8.13 million
Episode 2: 7.20 million
Episode 3: 6.18 million
Episode 4: 7.51 million
Episode 5: 7.58 million
Episode 6: 8.12 million
Average viewers: 7.45 million (Series 9)
Five-Season Average: 6.98 million (Series 9–13)
“Overall, the latest series of Top Gear (Series 14) received an average of 6.32 million viewers on BBC2, plus an average of 0.368 million viewers on BBC HD, for a total average UK audience of 6.688 million viewers. This represents a reduction of –292,000 viewers, compared to the 6.98 million average from the previous five seasons of Top Gear. The average total viewing figures for Season 14 equate to a reduction in Top Gear viewers of –4.18% compared to the previous five-season average.”
“The peak viewing for Top Gear (Series 14) was achieved by Episode 6, The Bolivia Special, with a combined total UK audience of 7.448 million viewers. This peak viewing figure for Series 14 was 0.902 million below the 8.35 million peak viewing for Top Gear over the previous five-seasons – as achieved for Series 10, Episode 8.”
…many thanks to the helpful team at the BBC statistics department!
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sisu design commented on this article
Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Hi all car entusiasts!
We are some students who currently are doing a study of car enthusiast’s perceptions of Scandinavian Design. It only takes 2 minutes to answer and we would really appreciate if you could answer. Thanks!
http://www.surveymonkey.c om/s/scandinavia
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Mark Wilson commented on this article
Thursday March 18, 2010 at 11:07 am
Andy,
How do I get material to the Top Gear production team? Good pic of a Mercedes in Pakistan with a massive three point star.
Mark Wilson
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lpost commented on this article
Thursday April 8, 2010 at 9:22 am
I really hope you guys make free HD streaming online for the next series — that would be amazing! Maybe on Hulu in the States?
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simon cowell commented on this article
Saturday April 10, 2010 at 9:57 pm
i really like the program called top gear it is soooooooooooooooooooo cooooool its amazing by the way i am the stig because i am the fastest driver
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simon cowell commented on this article
Saturday April 10, 2010 at 10:00 pm
i am only joking
i am not the stig but Lewis Hamilton is the stig
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escort models commented on this article
Tuesday June 15, 2010 at 8:21 am
Rather cool blog to pay attention to at least as for me. The only question I have, why haven’t you you submit this post to social bookmarking sites? This may bring lots of traffic to this blog.
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model escorts london commented on this article
Wednesday July 7, 2010 at 1:48 pm
It was very interesting for me to read the post. Thank author for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more soon. BTW, pretty good design you have here, but don’t you think it should be changed once in a few months?
Sara Meetington
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A Sitting Duck commented on this article
Monday July 19, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Over 5 million is amazing!… Over 10 million in 2011 with a move to Saturday night at 9pm I think!… ;]
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escort latina commented on this article
Wednesday October 20, 2010 at 9:45 pm
I definitely want to read a bit more soon. By the way, pretty good design you have here, but what do you think about changing it once in a few months?
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newautomotivearticle commented on this article
Wednesday October 26, 2011 at 3:22 am
This article has been rated by our readers to be the most useful post of the day.
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