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Chris Evans quits revamped Top Gear

"I feel like my standing aside is the single best thing I can now do to help the cause," says unpopular host.

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2016-07-05_0119

UK presenter Chris Evans has quit Top Gear after just one series and disappointing ratings.

“I have never worked with a more committed and driven team than the team I have worked with over the last twelve months,” he said. “I feel like my standing aside is the single best thing I can now do to help the cause. I remain a huge fan of the show, always have been, always will be. I will continue to focus on my radio show and the allied events that it encompasses.”

Mark Linsey, Director, BBC Studios on Top Gear said: “Chris is stepping down from his duties on Top Gear. He says he gave it his best shot doing everything he could to make the show a success. He firmly believes that the right people remain, on both the production team and presenting team to take the show forward and make it the hit we want it to be. The new series has so far notched up over 30m views in the UK alone and has already been sold to 130 territories worldwide.”

The revamped motoring show came in for heavy criticism from fans of the show, and saw ratings slip across the season, ending with just 1.9 million people this week -lower than any episodes with predecessors Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

Evans was notably defensive of the show on social media, taking aim at those who questioned his performance and the show’s ratings.

Co-presenter Matt Le Blanc has been better received by the fanbase along with motoring journalists Rory Reid and Chris Harris.

But the announcement also comes after UK police confirmed they are investigating allegations of sexual assault, after Evans was accused of grabbing the breasts of a female colleague in the 1990s.

Police have confirmed that a woman had made an allegation of “non-recent sexual assault” to officers in May, six days before Top Gear returned to the BBC.

Evans has previously denied the claims, saying that they amounted to a “witch hunt”. He added: “All these bullying claims and other allegations are just ridiculous.”

BBC sources also said they had not been contacted about the claims.

Top Gear concluded its season in Australia on BBC Knowledge last night.

Source: Independent, Telegraph

8 Responses

  1. The BBC is once again kicking its self having got into this mess in the first place. I doubt Clarkson and the guys will want to return any time soon if there new show is a hit with fans.

  2. I’ve always felt that the best replacement for Clarkson was Jimmy Carr. He may have too much on to do this show, but I think he’d be an ideal host. Eddie seems to be quite a character, but he doesn’t get much screen time. I’d like to see more of Eddie. Matt has slotted in perfectly.

  3. Evans didn’t help matters by being so aggressively defensive on Twitter. He should have been aware that it didn’t matter who was in the show or what they did, fans would always compare it unfavourably with the original (or Mark II anyway).

    I watched the first 2 eps but missed the third and didn’t bother chasing it up. I didn’t dislike the show – it’s just that there are better things to spend my time on.

  4. With Chris Evans gone, leave it with Chris Harris, Rory Reid and Matt LeBlanc who all present quite well. Fix whatever scripts Sabine Schmidt is dealing with, and Eddie Irvine has a lot more to offer if they can move away from casting/scripting him as the idiosyncratic one.

  8. The only way they can save the brand in the UK and around the world is to bring back Clarkson. Maybe they can do this in 2 years after the Amazon Prime deal finishes under a slight variation of the Top Gear name. The only other option is to poach the Fith Gear guys? Clearly the audience doesn’t want to invest time getting to know a new team and their gynamics.

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