English event in which three presenters race across country in vehicles that included a tank in order to attend a football match pulls in 11 million

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Chinese version of Top Gear has been watched by more than 200 million viewers on TV and online, with the most popular episode to date the presenters racing across England, in vehicles including a tank, to attend a football match.

The second series of the Chinese version of the BBC’s Top Gear, with a Taiwanese actor-singer, a TV host and a former top executive at an internet firm taking the place of the, now former, British hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, launched on pay-TV cable and satellite service Shanghai Dragon TV on 19 October.

The series, which airs across China and Taiwan, has so far attracted an average TV audience to date of 9 million viewers tuning into the first scheduled broadcast of each episode.

The fifth and most recent episode – in which the presenters race across the UK in vehicles not available in China in a battle for a single ticket to Manchester United v Everton – attracted a series high 11 million viewers.

The TV viewing has been amplified by a huge online audience of 173 million across the series so far, aggregating figures from China’s eight biggest video platforms including Tencent, Youku, Tudou, Sohu, Iqiyi and Baofeng.

Paul Dempsey, president of global markets at BBC Worldwide, used the success in China to highlight the strength of the Top Gear franchise.

Some observers question whether the loss of Clarkson, Hammond and May may damage the popularity and sales potential of the overall brand which makes about £50m in revenues annually.

“The success of Top Gear in China once again demonstrates the unique appeal of the world’s favourite motoring entertainment show,” said Dempsey. “It’s also testament to a successful collaboration between our own UK producers and their Chinese counterparts who have recreated a British institution for a whole new audience.”

The collaboration was perhaps not so successful for series one, which averaged about half the TV viewing and drew only 33 million online viewers in total, with all three hosts changed and elements of the format of the show overhauled for the second series.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A 30ft high Big Stig was given a special visa to promote Top Gear China in 10 cities across the country. Photograph: BBC Worldwide

The BBC also gave the second series a major marketing push with a 30ft high “Big Stig” given a “Chinese visa” for six months to tour 10 cities across China.

The local hosts will appear in a Chinese version of Top Gear Live, the arena event affiliated with the TV show, scheduled for Shanghai next spring.

The new-look British version of the hit BBC2 motoring show will debut next year with DJ and TV presenter Chris Evans as the lead host.

The success of Top Gear has outstripped that of the third series of Sherlock, although the show has less China-wide appeal as it is the English version, which notched up about 100 million views online.

Subtitled episodes of Downton Abbey are reportedly watched by 160 million viewers, while US show The Big Bang Theory, supposedly the most popular foreign show in China, has been viewed more than 1.5bn times on video sites.

The biggest hits in China have been versions of entertainment shows such as China’s Got Talent, a local version of Simon Cowell’s ITV programme, for which viewing fihgures top 400 million an episode.

