Top Gear Lost 1.5M Viewers for Second Episode

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Apparently 1.5-million people didn’t feel like being fooled twice as Top Gear‘s viewership dropped from 4.3 million on its first episode to 2.8 million during the show’s second episode, according to overnights.tv. That’s a major difference compared to the previous show featuring Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, which averaged 5.6-million viewers. In fact, the final show starring the old hosts had 5.3-million viewers.

SEE ALSO: Tweets That Sum Up the Reactions to Last Night’s Top Gear Return

The Internet didn’t take too kindly to the revamped Top Gear now that Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc are its main hosts. Evans took to Twitter to defend the show after the first episode, but the drastic drop in viewership is alarming.

The Sun is also alleging that the show is using “canned laughter” during the in-studio segments that have “awkward silences.” Video of the audience seems to support The Sun‘s claims, but BBC has denied any tampering.

It will be interesting to see if BBC decides to revamp the show again if viewers continue to drop.