The British version of MTV's Pimp My Ride, in which decrepit cars are transformed into gleaming bling machines for grateful owners, has become the channel's biggest ratings hit since The Osbournes.
The first episode, presented by DJ Tim Westwood, pulled in half a million viewers between 10pm and 10.30pm on Sunday.
It made MTV the third most-watched channel among 16- to 34-year-olds, MTV's target audience, after ITV, which was showing the final 30 minutes of Midsomer Murders, and the start of the film From Hell on Channel 4.
The cable channel outrated BBC1, BBC2, Five, E4 and Sky One while the show was on air. Michael Barry, the interim controller of MTV UK, said: "We're delighted with the success of Pimp My Ride UK. The US version of the show has already been a big hit with our viewers, but the UK series has shown that it's possible to take a strong US format, give it a distinctive British twist and enhance the show for our local audience."
The original is presented by rapper Xzibit, but the UK remake is fronted by Radio 1 DJ Westwood. The first episode of the unashamedly lowbrow show featured a 1961 Morris Minor being "pimped".
In an upcoming episode, Bez of the Happy Mondays and winner of Celebrity Big Brother, has his 17-year-old taxi fitted with more than £100,000 worth of equipment including a 42-inch plasma screen, six sub-woofers, 13 speakers, a laptop, mixing desk, Xbox and a smoke machine.
Writing about Pimp My Ride in the Guardian, Charlie Brooker said the "phenomenally and frighteningly shallow" show sees "a team of butch mechanics perform extreme makeovers on clapped-out automobiles. All of which happens for no discernable reason at all. It's pure 'bling' in action - the celebration of gaudy, self-aggrandising, shallow, meaningless shit for its own barefaced sake," according to Brooker. - Guardian Service