This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Chris Evans said Top Gear was “repositioning” the way people watch TV in the era of on-demand viewing, but the BBC show lost a third of its audience on the BBC’s iPlayer during its first series without Jeremy Clarkson.



The first episode of Top Gear drew more than 1.4 million requests on the BBC’s catch-up service after it returned at the end of May, but by the time of the fourth episode three weeks later, the number had fallen by half a million to 901,000.



The figures, published by the BBC on Tuesday, echo the decline in the traditional TV ratings for the show, which began with an overnight audience of more than 4 million viewers but ended up with fewer than 2 million.



Chris Evans quits BBC Top Gear after just one series Read more

Defending the performance of the show, Evans had earlier pointed to the programme’s catch-up viewing as evidence of its continued popularity and said Top Gear was “repositioning the way” people watch TV.



Chris Evans (@achrisevans) The way Top Gear is being viewed is repositioning the way television is consumed. Last week 9 millions viewers. This week we shall see.

The new series of Top Gear began with a Sunday night audience of 4.3 million viewers on 29 May, growing to more than 6 million in the consolidated figures, which include people who recorded it and watched it in the subsequent seven days.



However, it fell during the course of the run to an overnight audience of just 1.9 million for its final episode on 3 July, which grew to 2.6 million in the consolidated figures.



The iPlayer figures reveal that Top Gear’s total audience, including its entire TV audience and iPlayer requests, nearly halved in three weeks, from 7.8 million for its first episode to 4.1 million for episode four.

Evans had said before the series started that he would be “disappointed” with anything less than 5 million viewers.



The day after the final episode of the six-part series, Evans quit the show, saying he had given the programme his best shot but it wasn’t good enough.



The Radio 2 breakfast DJ is not expected to be replaced for the next series of the show – worth at the last count £50m a year to the corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.

Evans’ co-presenter, former Friends star Matt LeBlanc, is expected to take the lead anchor role.

