BBC Top Gear’s mantle as the biggest motoring show on TV appears intact after ITV’s new celebrity racing series, Drive, got off the starting line with 2 million viewers on Tuesday night.
The show, which has been called an extended version of Top Gear’s “star in a reasonably priced car” segment, features celebrities including former X Factor judge Louis Walsh, presenter Mariella Frostrup and rapper Professor Green racing each other in different cars each week.
The first episode of the Vernon Kay-fronted show drew an average of 1.97 million viewers and a 9.4% share of total TV viewing between 9pm and 10pm on Tuesday night.
While Drive is not a direct competito,r Chris Evans will nonetheless be pleased that it does not appear to be a threat to his new look Top Gear, which is due to return to TV in May.
The Guardian’s review of the show said “even Top Gear fans will be bored silly” with Drive.
Still, its 2 million average audience was enough to rank Drive the second-most-watched show in its slot on Tuesday night, behind BBC1’s autism drama The A Word, which drew 4.2 million viewers.
