And on that bombshell... 'Sad' Clarkson's Top Gear finale goes out with 5.3m viewers
Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear has finally come to a close with his last ever episode drawing a live audience of 5.3m.
The episode, which was suspended following Clarkson’s heavily publicised ‘fracas’ with a Top Gear producer, drew in a 23 per cent share of TV audiences on Sunday evening, sitting comfortably as the most viewed show.
Clarkson discussed his sadness at the conclusion of the show on Twitter.
Strange that BBC News is talking down the last Top Gear tonight. Do they not want big ratings for some reason?
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) June 28, 2015
Many many thanks for all your support and encouragement over the years. So sad and sorry it's ended like this
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) June 28, 2015
The audience will be significantly higher when the BBC releases figures of the episodes on demand viewing on iPlayer.
Upon the reformatted Top Gear’s return with Chris Evans at the helm, the BBC will have the task of rebuilding an audience which may instead be drawn to Clarkson, Hammond and May’s Netflix auto show which is reportedly in the early stages of development.