‘Clarkson’s Farm’ Breaks UK Viewing Records For Amazon Prime Video After Meghan Markle Scandal
Clarkson’s Farm has become Amazon Prime Video’s most-watched original show in the UK since the country’s ratings body started collecting data for major streaming services.
The Season 2 premiere of Jeremy Clarkson’s farming show was watched by nearly 4.3M viewers on TV sets, according to Barb, the official audience research group.
This was comfortably Amazon’s highest-rated show since Barb began reporting viewing figures for streamers in November 2021, per a Deadline analysis. It beat The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which launched last September with 3.2M viewers.
Clarkson’s Farm ranked 16th in a list of the most-watched shows in the UK for the week to February 12, meaning it topped network giants including The Brit Awards and Love Island on ITV.
Clarkson’s Farm episodes two and three also featured in Barb’s top 50 shows for the week in question, garnering nearly 3.8M and 3.3M viewers respectively.
The figures only include people watching on television sets, meaning that viewing on mobile devices does not feature in the numbers.
Produced by Expectation, Clarkson’s Farm dropped soon after the presenter was engulfed in controversy following his column in The Sun newspaper about Meghan Markle.
Clarkson wrote that he “hates” the Duchess of Sussex and she should be made to “parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain,” a callback to a Game of Thrones scene.
He later apologized “all the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head.” He added: “This is me putting my hands up. It’s a mea culpa with bells on.”
It was not enough to prevent sources from briefing Variety that Clarkson’s deal would not be renewed beyond 2024, meaning the end of the road for Clarkson’s Farm and The Grand Tour. Amazon neither confirmed nor denied the report.
Sources close to Expectation were somewhat bemused by the report that Clarkson had been canceled and Amazon did not communicate to producers its desire to end the shows.
A third season of Clarkson’s Farm is currently filming. A new Grand Tour episode is in post-production, with another two scheduled to shoot. Sources said it was not unusual for Amazon to refuse to commit to renewals ahead of new episodes streaming.
deadline.com
