Reception
Michael Idato of the Sydney Morning Herald described the first episode as "unsteady on some of the corners" and "a little too tricked up for its own good", noting "a distinct lack of detail, presumably to position the show away from car geeks". Stuart Martin, motoring writer for the Adelaide Advertiser said a franchise was "always going to have a tough job living up to the UK original" but noted that Top Gear was not an overnight success and urged viewers to "give the locals a chance to find their niche". In retrospect Philip King said that the first season "received lukewarm reviews and couldn't get close to the ratings success of the original".
The first episode debuted with an audience of 933,000 viewers, SBS's highest ever ratings for a locally produced television programme. Top Gear Australia came third in its time slot and beat an elimination episode of Australian Idol. The figure was slightly higher than any season premiere of the BBC version aired on SBS, up until that date. However, subsequent episodes failed to match this figure, and the first season averaged around 650,000 viewers an episode. In comparison, viewing figures for the previous three Top Gear UK episodes shown in the same timeslot averaged around 903,000 viewers, though during this period Top Gear Australia still remained the highest rating program on SBS. Series one has since been repeated on SBS Two.
For the second series SBS attempted to address some of the criticism brought up against the first series. The second series of the show debuted with 689,000 viewers, averaging 576,500 viewers across the series against the high rating MasterChef Australia. Ratings dropped throughout the second series, leading to speculation that SBS would not buy a third series.
Jeremy Clarkson has commented on the Australian version, saying "We're loving it, even though your funny accents make you hard to understand".
The third series premiered on 28 September 2010 on the Nine Network, pulling in 1,538,000 viewers, making it the second most watched television programme that day. The 75-minute The Ashes special, which featured the Top Gear UK presenters facing against the Australian presenters in a series of challenges, also won its timeslot against competing programmes.
The Nine Network renewed the series for a 4th season in 2011 before being cancelled after three of the six recorded episodes aired due to declining ratings. The remaining unaired episodes were eventually burnt-off on Nine's subchannel Go! in April 2012.
Read more about this topic: Top Gear Australia
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