The people have spoken, and they don’t like Chris Evans. Amid disappointing ratings and a critical drubbing,
The Telegraph reports the 50-year-old will take a less prominent role on future episodes of
Top Gear.
Evans and Matt LeBlanc will still handle the show’s studio links, which means viewers will have to suffer through more of those boring Superstar in a Rallycross Car interviews. But with Evans stepping back,
The Telegraph expects Rory Reid and Chris Harris to step up and handle the taped reviews. The two have a lot of work to do.
Despite its positive critical reception, the first episode of the main show featuring Harris and Reid brought in 2.37 million Brits during the initial airing on BBC2. Only episode six of season two of the
Jeremy Clarkson era had crummier ratings. But as multiple outlets have pointed out, TG had some serious competition for British viewers’ eyeballs last weekend – BBC1 was airing an early game in the big Euro 2016 soccer tournament, and ITV aired a special episode of the soap opera
Coronation Street.
But unlucky scheduling is small consolation for any show that’s seen its viewing figures decline the way
Top Gear‘s have. Episode one brought in 4.3 million viewers during its BBC2 broadcast, but in two weeks nearly 2 million of those viewers have moved on. An equally large worry is the drop in iPlayer views. Within one week, episode one had recorded 2.1 million online viewers, for a grand total of 6.4 million.
According to The Guardian, episode two could only muster 1.5 million iPlayer views, for a total of 4.1 million, or 200,000 less than EP1 without the iPlayer.
Like we said, Harris and Reid have a lot of work to do.
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