We’re not Flop Gear!
Evans hits back but only 4.4m tune in – that’s 1m fewer than watched Clarkson’s last show
CHRIS Evans yesterday hit back at critics quick to brand his new motoring TV show Flop Gear.
He defended his new Top Gear even though Sunday’s first episode attracted the series’ lowest opening audience figures in more than a decade.
The BBC2 show drew an average 4.4million viewers, with a 4.7million peak, while the last series under the old team of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond ended with 5.8million.
In the last ten years, the lowest number of viewers for an opening episode of the old Top Gear was 4.7million, still ahead of the number watching Evans’ debut.
Evans said last week he would be ‘disappointed’ if the opener attracted fewer than five million viewers.
‘If we had to guess about the number of viewers we are going to get on Sunday night, you have got to say you would be disappointed if it was under five million,’ he had said. ‘Five million-plus would be great, after that it doesn’t matter.’
The show was still the most-watched programme in the 8pm time slot, beating Antiques Roadshow on BBC1 and the British Soap Awards on ITV.
But Countryfile on BBC1 between 7pm and 8pm drew a few thousand more.
Last night, Evans, who prepared himself for the show’s debut by reading the papers over a quiet pint in his Surrey local, hit back at critics with a series of tweets.
The presenter, dubbed Mr Shouty by some for his delivery, wrote: ‘The new Top Gear is a hit. OFFICIALLY. 23% audience share. 12% MORE than the opening episode of the last series. These are the FACTS.’
His next post read: ‘ Top Gear audience grew throughout the hour. FACT. Won its slot. FACT. Still number one on iPlayer. FACT. These are THE FACTS folks.’
Yesterday, bookmaker Coral slashed the odds on Evans and cohost Matt LeBlanc being dropped after this series from 5-1 to 10-11.
Evans’s rival Jeremy Clarkson had been in Monaco for the Grand Prix and looked tanned and tired as he returned to London late on Sunday. Yesterday he said he was unable to give his own critique as he was ‘busy’.
James May told MailOnline he saw the show and was a ‘massive fan’ but would not be drawn on ratings or reviews.
Viewers took to social media on Sunday to criticise Evans’ new show – and criticised producers for keeping a similar format, with a number of stunts appearing to be copied from previous episodes.
Sunday’s episode kicked off with Evans taking a Dodge Viper ACR to Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada to battle fellow presenter Sabine Schmitz in a Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
It also saw LeBlanc and Evans race Reliant Rialtos emblazoned with the Union Flag and Stars and Stripes. The stunt was remarkably similar to one in 2010 when the former Top Gear trio raced Reliant Robins, made famous by BBC sitcom Only Fools And Horses, so fast that they kept tipping over.
There was also a scene where LeBlanc jumped behind the wheel of a dune buggy – which Clarkson and Hammond also did during an episode in 2005.
Kellie Yardley wrote: ‘ New Top Gear is pretty much old Top Gear – same scripts, different faces – would have thought they’d have wanted to change it up a bit...’
Blasting the corporation’s former director of television – and the man who sacked Clarkson – one viewer wrote on Twitter: ‘@JeremyClarkson it is safe to say that @DannyCohen has now made top gear into flop gear!’.
Another disgruntled viewer posted: ‘Five minutes in and it’s clear that Chris Evans is just trying to be @JeremyClarkson. A poor man’s Clarkson at best. #TopGear.’
TV presenter Carol Vorderman tweeted: ‘ Sorry # TopGear ... switching off ... looking forward to the proper boys on @amazonprimenow soon ... night all xxx’
Clarkson was fired by Mr Cohen after verbally abusing and punching Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon while the team was on location.
Clarkson flew into a rage after being told he could not order a steak after a day of filming in March last year, calling Mr Tymon a ‘lazy, Irish ****’ during a confrontation at a hotel in North Yorkshire.
The presenter and his former employers agreed in February to pay Mr Tymon more than £100,000 in damages for injury and racial discrimination – allowing the BBC to avoid a full tribunal hearing.
Clarkson is fronting a new show for Amazon Prime called The Grand Tour with fellow presenters Hammond and May.
‘The same scripts, different faces’