Top Gear Australia Episode 2 Ratings Slide

It has become apparent on our humble site that the second episode of Top Gear was received a little more positively than the first by those who watched it, which is good news. However, it appears that the first episode has not been well-enough received to entice its record-breaking audience back, second time around.

Top Gear’s producers had hoped to crack the one million viewer mark with last night's episode, but only managed 674,000. That’s 250,000 down on the previous week and only enough to see Top Gear Oz rank as the 26th most watched show of the night.

In fact, it finished dead last in its time slot, against the likes of Australian Idol, Border Security and the 7:30 Report.

Matt Campbell, SBS director of television has admitted that the result is disappointing, but not a disaster, with many shows having their ups and downs before finding their feet.

"No one ever wants to see their second episode go backwards but I'm still confident about the series,'' Campbell said.

"We have to bed it in, it's one of those things.''

A second season of Top Gear Australia is at this stage still on the cards.

Lets hope the rough edges can be knocked off and the Oz series can find its own identity and style, in time to attract the sort of audiences that will ensure its ongoing success. A quick flick around sites like TMR will give the Top Gear producers a good idea of what viewers - car enthusiasts - are looking for and where improvements might be made.