Nobody said it was going to be easy, but Chris Evans (the BBC radio host, not Mr. Captain America) probably didn't imagine becoming the new host of Top Gear would be this hard. The new, post-Clarkson era of Top Gear is struggling and stumbling, to say the least. According to the stats after Sunday's episode, only 2.34 million viewers tuned in to Top Gear – the show's lowest figure since June 2003.
In fact, the show's weekly audience had gradually slipped since the series opened with 6.4 million viewers tuning in to the premiere. According to the Top Gear UK viewing figures by overnights.tv, via The Telegraph, episode 1 garnered 4.4 million viewers, 2.8 million for episode 2, 2.4 million for episode 3, and finally 2.3 million on Sunday's episode 4. Critics are unimpressed by Evans' "shouty" presenting style and, personally, I completely agree. I would even say Evans' voice is straight up annoying.
Thankfully, this isn't lost on BBC. In a desperate decision to restore Top Gear's ratings, The Telegraph reported that Chris Evans will hold a smaller role in future episodes of Top Gear.
But who will step up? Fellow presenters Rory Reid and Chris Harris will takeover the taped reviews and, hopefully, this could also mean that Evans will spend less time chatting with the celebrity guests. We get that "A Star In A Reasonably Priced Car" is a part of Top Gear tradition, but I believe we can all agree that a little less star and a little more car is the more preferred recipe.
