Evans’s Top Gear hits new ratings low – and the viewers that remain are less than impressed

Chris Evans’s revamped Top Gear slipped to a new ratings low this weekend, after Sunday’s episode was seen by fewer viewers than any episode since Jeremy Clarkson revived the show in 2002.

An audience of 2.34 million watched the fourth instalment of the motoring show, in which the hosts raced to Venice in second-hand cars, narrowly below Clarkson’s lowest audience of 2.36 million, in June 2003.

The audience will rise over the next week, as catch-up viewing is taken into account, but viewing figures for the new Top Gear have been disappointing.

Despite the opening episode recording 6.4 million viewers, including catch-up viewing, the show’s audience has gradually slipped – not helped by its clash with Euro 2016 football matches, which attract a similar young, male audience.

Official Barb figures from overnights.tv reveal that the second episode attracted a live audience of 2.8 million, which rose to 4.1 million with catch-up viewing, while the third was seen by 2.4 million viewers, rising to 3.4 million over the following week.

The programme is generally regarded to have improved over the course of the series, as Evans has toned down what critics said was a “shouty” presenting style, but audience appreciation figures collected by the BBC suggest viewers are unimpressed. The first episode recorded an Appreciation Index (AI) score of 60/100, marking it as poor quality. Episodes two and three were rated 68 and 69 by viewers. The average score for a BBC Two show is 82.

Alan Tyler, the BBC’s head of entertainment commissioning, said: “We are four episodes into the new

Top Gear era with its new presenting line up, and remain really pleased with the way the series is performing.

“[Sunday’s] episode was another great watch and yet again was easily the biggest show of the day on BBC Two. Being up against a major sporting event is always tough.”