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Top Gear tops iPlayer hit list

Streaming success

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The Beeb's Top Gear was the most watched show on the corporation's iPlayer during 2009, with the first episodes of series 13 and 14 clocking up 1.7m and 1.3m hits, respectively.

According to the BBC, the year's total "requests for content" was 729.2m, with November marking "a record 88.2m requests for BBC TV and radio programmes."

Auntie's data provocatively reveals that "Mac and PS3 users prefer comedy shows like Mock The Week, while PC and Virgin Media users are more keen on drama, with EastEnders and Waking The Dead proving more popular."

Peak times for streaming are "after 9pm and on Saturday and Sunday mornings", the Beeb adds.

Erik Huggers, the BBC's director of future media and technology, said: "These figures show people are making the most of the choice they now have. Whether it's watching EastEnders on your PC during your lunch break, listening to Desert Island Discs on the bus or watching Mock The Week in bed, viewing patterns change depending on the time and location of the audience." ®

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Top Gear is a cult hit here in the US

I live in a city, Indianapolis, where people really love cars. (You might have heard of some race we've had for nigh on 100 years over Memorial Day weekend.) It's not uncommon to observe stay-at-home moms in the rich burbs who are meeting for lunch and discussing the merits of a BMW vs a Mercedes, or talking about how different cars handle in wintry conditions. And here, Top Gear is a big hit, even among people you'd think were NOT their target audience.

Part of it that people like cars, but also that Clarkson, Hammond, and May aren't afraid of mocking themselves and each other. Yes, they are goofs, but we can see ourselves in (at least one of their) goofiness. Long may they broadcast.

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You need 5th Gear...

Top Gear is ENTERTAINMENT TV, not informative reporting on cars and the industry. It has been that way since the format changed ooh 14 series ago?

Go watch 5th gear with Quentin "I'll bore you into pulling your own teeth out" Wilson

On the iPlayer, its great althought more mobile support and being able to keep content (ive already paid to make it so its mine) would be further improvements :)

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Top Gear was scrapped

Top Gear as a useful show containing reviews of new cars was scrapped years ago. Vicki Butler Henderson and Tiff Needel were then approached by Channel 5 and set up Fifth Gear as an almost carbon copy of what Top Gear had always been.

Top Gear then re-emerged in its current format. As an entertainment show based on motoring. Its about supercars and crazy races... entertaining stuff.

Occasionally they thrown in a faux real road test, such as the other week with the sporty Twingo, as a way to mock the people who complain that it used to be a more interesting show in the olden days.

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