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Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent (wk30)

TV shows are by far the most wanted files via BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s fast becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?

top gearThe data is collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only.

At the end of the year we will publish a list of most downloaded TV-shows for the entire year, like we did last December.

TV-shows such as “Lost” and “Heroes” can get up to 10 million downloads per episode, in only a week.

Top Downloads June 20 – July 27

Ranking (last week) TV-show
1 (1) Top Gear
2 (3) Stargate Atlantis
3 (2) Weeds
4 (4) Generation Kill
5 (5) The Daily Show
6 (new) Penn and Teller Bullshit
7 (8) In Plain Sight
8 (10) Burn Notice
9 (6) Psych
10 (9) The Colbert Report

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  • Mikle

    Stargate Atlantis <3 :D

  • StRyKaH

    It’s a shame Doctor Who isn’t on there, guess that’s because it’s not an american show.

  • Crandom

    This week’s Top Gear was (awesome)^2. Don’t mention the war….

  • Killer Tree

    Poor Colbert…
    On a side note, does anyone else find it amusing that there are far more quality viewing hours on the Top 10 TV list then the Top 10 DVD list?
    TV quality > Movies?

  • meh

    Penn and Teller Bullshit WTF!

  • meh

    * I meant FTW, not WTF :P

  • Anonymouse

    ^ Bestest acronym fail ever.

  • none

    ” 2 Jul 29, 2008 at 15:31 by StRyKaH

    It’s a shame Doctor Who isn’t on there, guess that’s because it’s not an american show.”

    thats a stupid ass comment considering that the number one show is British. Its just that no one cares about Dr. Who because it sucks balls, like you.

  • Shengis

    “It’s a shame Doctor Who isn’t on there, guess that’s because it’s not an american show.”

    Or more likely because it’s not a running series ;-)

  • question

    where did the top dvdrips disappear?

  • aaaa

    “thats a stupid ass comment considering that the number one show is British. Its just that no one cares about Dr. Who because it sucks balls, like you.”

    or because, like many other shows, Dr. Who is done for this season and will get in new episodes in the next few months i guess.

  • flagg1209

    @4 I guess you are right, Movies suck at the moment, but there is some real quality TV out there (if you ignore all the crappy ‘reality’ TV shows).

  • Anonymous
  • none

    half the cast of Dr. Who has been on top gear saying that they left the show because it sucked balls. so that is what im sticking with.

  • Anonymous

    “On a side note, does anyone else find it amusing that there are far more quality viewing hours on the Top 10 TV list then the Top 10 DVD list?
    TV quality > Movies?”

    Why look at the most popular TV shows and movies to find quality? Why not look at them in general? There are plenty of movies that are amazing and aren’t the same studio stuff that most people watch.

  • #YLS#

    @11 – none

    “half the cast of Dr. Who has been on top gear saying that they left the show because it sucked balls. so that is what im sticking with.”

    ??? who in Doctor Who has gone on Top Gear and said that? Just because you don’t enjoy it doesn’t mean we want to hear you rant…

    Doctor Who isn’t on the list because it’s finished for the year and will only be doing a few specials next year and will then be back for a 5th Season.

    p.s. Top Gear has finished now aswell so it probably won’t be back on the list next week, but it has been a very good series! – minus the stunt guy he was crap, lol

  • enter8

    What I want to know is…

    If Bullshit is the 6th most pirated TV show… why the hell is it taking 2-3 days to get capped?

  • rasha

    i just recently got into Weeds and omg i love it.
    I watched every episode in 3 days.
    Its pretty addicting

  • Anonymous

    If this list came out tomorrow, I guess eureka would be pretty high up the list.

  • lololol

    @ 14

    i think ive watched every single top gear episode apart from one or two. Any cast members from dr who have never said ‘i left it because it sucked balls’

    Although i dont disagree, that program is awful. David tennant is pretty cool though.

  • Anonymous

    One suggestion i have is maybe list the # of downloads in the week to give us some perspective as to a particular shows performance from week to week.

  • master811

    The reason Top Gear is top is because it ISN’T an American show. Therefore far more people can’t watch it on TV (compared to other US shows) or aren’t able to and so they have to download it. Doctor Who would be on there for the same reason (but isn’t as its not running at the moment).

  • Anonymous

    @22 you mean, far more US people can’t watch it on TV. US is not the only country you know

  • Anonymous

    Actually Top Gear is on Discovery Channel, and PBS, check with your local station if they have Top Gear in your area.

    I personally enjoy the old format. 1989 was a good year.

  • Anonymous

    oh yeah, Dr. Who also runs in the US :)

  • master811

    @23, yeah that’s what I meant

    @24, Top Gear is shown in the US of course, but often a few years later (and it’s normally cut down/edited from the UK version as it’s a full 1hr rather than the 40mins like most US shows).

  • zeeol

    Could someone please post the list on here? I can’t access torrentfreak from work.

    Without the Lost/Office/Scrubs combo I haven’t been getting as much TV lately, but I’ve recently got into Dexter and of course there’s always Weeds (which hasn’t been as good this season, but it is starting to pick up. Needs more Doug Wilson.)
    http://zeeol.com/Blog

  • M

    The Top Gear on BBC America (and other US networks) is not the current season. It is also edited to fit the US time frame.

  • Anonymous

    generation kill! WOOT waste some insurgents

  • M

    Oops. Sorry 23, I did not see that there was a second page of comments and did not realize you had already made my points.

  • Stargate

    Bah Stargate :D

    http://www.wiinjamod.com

  • Anonymous

    Actually, most episodes are reruns of seasons past of Top Gear – reason we download it now is for the newer seasons. Im worried about the new US version though with Adam Corrolla. Be funny if the UK started downloading our version.

  • 33

    Dr Who is in the US, but its a season or three behind, iirc.

    What’s interesting is that these are cable programs in the US. Not a single major network listed (cbs, fox, cw, nbc, abc).

  • Drakenking

    I get my Doctor Who from Newgroups

  • Misanthrope

    Weeds is amazing. I wish there were 10 seasons.

  • werwerwerwerwerwerwerwer

    top gear rocks

  • Shengis

    “32 Jul 30, 2008 at 18:57 by Anonymous

    Actually, most episodes are reruns of seasons past of Top Gear – reason we download it now is for the newer seasons. Im worried about the new US version though with Adam Corrolla. Be funny if the UK started downloading our version.
    ”

    Cool, i’ll watch out for that one. Bet it totally fails without Jezza though lol.

  • Scared

    Well I know most of the population of Australia would torrent it since they don’t show the bloody show until months (maybe even years) after being shown in the US and even then its on at a shitty time because we think that “Battle of the choirs” is much better television =/

  • Scared

    I wish there was a way to edit a comment….I was referring to Stargate Atlantis is my above comment. I don’t even think we have seen the end of SG1 down here, I’m not even sure if we started the 8th season….

  • Bob

    Doctor Who finished a couple of weeks ago.. if you look at previous polls it was in the top three.

  • ~Ko!e~

    I’m turned off by the tele excluding sum of the prev mentioned shows/tele movies… “Reality” just proves what I always thought: there’s a lot of brainless peple walking the earth.

    Weeds and Tudors…yeah Tudors…BRB

  • parkside701

    really surprised that Burn Notice is only ranked 8th. I would’ve put it in the top 10

  • Oscaron

    Daily Show, In Plain Sight, Burn Notice, Psych and Colbert Report are all available for free on Hulu now.

  • Oscaron

    @42 Um…8th IS in the top 10.

  • Meocross

    *Poke* you are forgetting some anime TorrentFreak Admins :3

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

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