Add ABC’s “Fast Cars & Superstars: Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race” to the growing list of disappointing new summer launches. The limited-run reality series’ debut last night drew very modest ratings.

“Cars” averaged a 1.9 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, finishing a distant second behind Fox’s “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” from 8 to 8:30 p.m.

It barely beat CBS’s Mark Burnett reality bomb “Pirate Master” in that demographic, with the latter averaging a 1.8 at 8, and in fact finished some 600,000 behind “Pirate” in total viewers with a 5.6 million average.

One bright spot for ABC: The show was actually up 27 percent over last week's National Spelling Bee coverage in the same timeslot.

In "Cars," 12 celebrities, such as William Shatner and Serena Williams, are partnered with professional stock car racers in the seven-episode series, which is hosted by ESPN’s Kenny Mayne.

The show’s low ratings came despite leading last night into the NBA Finals pregame at 8:30 and Game 1 of the finals at 9 p.m.

But ABC is hardly alone in posting disappointing ratings for a new show. Fox’s “On the Lot” and CBS’s “Creature Comforts” were both below 2.0 this week, and “Pirate” declined 17 percent from last week’s already-low debut.

Fox finished first last night among viewers 18-49 with a 3.6 average rating and a 12 share. ABC was second at 2.8/7, CBS third at 2.2/7, Univision and NBC tied for fourth at 1.7/5, and CW sixth at 0.7/2.
 
At 8 p.m. Fox started the night in the lead with a 2.9 rating for “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,” with CBS and ABC tied for second at 1.9, for “Pirate” and ABC for “Cars” (1.9) and “NBA Countdown” (1.9). Univision and NBC tied for fourth that hour at 1.8, Univision for “La Fea Mas Bella” and NBC for “My Name is Earl” repeats, with CW sixth with a 0.8 for a repeat of “Smallville.”
 
Fox led again at 9 p.m. with a 4.2 for “So You Think You Can Dance,” while ABC took sole possession of second with a 3.1 for its first hour of the NBA Finals game between the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers. As a reminder, fast nationals measure timeslot data, not live program data, so overnights for last night’s game coverage may be inaccurate. ABC’s ratings will adjust later today when final ratings are released.

CBS was third with a 2.5 for a repeat of “CSI,” Univision fourth with a 1.9 for “Destilando Amor,” NBC fifth with a 1.7 for repeats of “The Office” and “Scrubs” and CW sixth with a 0.7 for a repeat of “Supernatural.”
 
At 10 p.m. ABC was first with a 3.5 for its continued coverage of the NBA Finals, with CBS second with a 2.3 for a repeat of “Shark,” and Univision and NBC tied for third at 1.7, Univision for “Aqui y Ahora” and NBC for “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.”
 
Among households, Fox led the night with a 6.2 average rating and an 11 share. CBS was second at 5.7/10, ABC third at 5.0/9, NBC fourth at 3.0/5, Univision fifth at 2.1/4 and CW sixth at 1.4/2.