ITV orders Top Gear rival Drive!

UK broadcaster ITV has commissioned Drive!, a new motoring entertainment series that will go up against the BBC’s Top Gear and Amazon’s high-profile new motoring series.

Produced by TwoFour, Drive! will have celebrities racing against each other in driving challenges in a variety of vehicles, ranging from old wrecks, to jeeps, to rally cars.

Celebs signed up include former X Factor judge Louis Walsh, presenter Angus Deayton, and athlete Colin Jackson.

The two contestants with the slowest times in each episode battle it out in a night race to stay on the show. The finalists, meanwhile, will compete in Formula 4000 racing cars in a bid to win the competition.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment will sell the series and format internationally. With Drive! also coming to market, the cars and motoring category is fiercely contested in the UK, and internationally, where Top Gear is one of BBC Worldwide’s core programming franchises.

The new-look BBC Top Gear goes out later this year, with Chris Evans replacing Jeremy Clarkson and his team. Clarkson et al, meanwhile, are making a new big-budget motoring series for Amazon’s streaming service.

Drive was commissioned by ITV’s Director of comedy and entertainment Elaine Bedell and Asif Zubairy, commissioning editor, entertainment.