Top Gear USA Set

At long last, American car nuts have a version of Top Gear to call our own. The project has been in the works for a long time now, and finally debuted on the History Channel this past Sunday. As we go to press server, some 17,500 readers responded to our poll: over 42 percent had already watched it, a few more said they intended to, and less than 14 percent of respondents said they weren't even interested. That's all well and good, but how did the show itself actually fair on the all-important ratings chart?

Well, according to Inside Line, it did kinda-sorta alright. Some 1.9 million viewers tuned in to watch the show's debut. And that might seem like a lot – especially considering the NFL games it was airing against, but it's really just fair-to-middling. Compare it to the premiere for Conan O'Brien's new show on TBS (4.2 million) or History's top program Pawn Stars (3-5 million) and suddenly it looks quite modest. Still, it's in the very early going, and it's still around average for a basic cable show, so it's way too early to draw any conclusions about Top Gear USA and its fortunes.

[Source: Inside Line]