Clarkson’s Farm breaks viewing records despite Meghan Markle backlash

It beat The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by more than a million viewers

The second series of Clarkson’s Farm has been viewed by more than 4 million people and is easily Amazon's highest-rated show, despite its star almost ending his telly career with comments about Meghan Markle. Jeremy Clarkson sparked floods of outrage in December after writing a column in The Sun about how much he hated Duchess of Sussex and how he dreamed of the day she was paraded through the streets and had excrement thrown at her. Both the publication and Clarkson later apologised, after the column became the press regulator’s most complained about article, with 25,100 people objecting to it. Meghan and Harry rejected Clarkson's apology saying it wasn't a one-off error, rather that it represented "a long-standing pattern of writing articles that spreading hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny”. But, amid reports that both Amazon and ITV - where Clarkson hosts, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? were set to axe him - almost4.3 million people tuned into the season two premiere of the 62-year-old 's farming show, according to figures published by Deadline from Barb, an official audience research group. The publication said the ratings were comfortably Amazon’s highest-rated show since Barb began reporting viewing figures for streamers in November 2021. 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 that week. The episodes were watched by 3.8m and 3.3m viewers. The figures only include people watching on television sets, meaning that viewing on mobile devices does not feature in the numbers. Clarkson’s Farm dropped soon after the presenter was engulfed in controversy following his column, with outrage and media reports of the aftermath only ceasing in recent weeks. The former Top Gear host issued a grovelling apology “all the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head.” The second season of Clarkson's Farm, which started streaming on February 10, sees Clarkson return to his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat Farm in the Cotswolds alongside Lisa, Kaleb, Charlie and Gerald. Clarkson recently confirmed a third season of his farming show. Related links:

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