Slashdot Mirror
Top Gear Host Chris Evans Steps Down After Poor Ratings (theverge.com)
A number of readers have submitted news coming out of popular show Top Gear. Chris Evans has announced he is leaving his role as a presenter on BBC Two's Top Gear after one series. His resignation comes amid falling ratings for the show -- which hit a series low on Sunday night, with an average of 1.9 million viewers. The Verge reports:Evans was brought in alongside Matt LeBlanc and host of other new faces to fill the positions left by Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. The first series of the show had poor ratings, with fewer than 2 million viewers tuning into its series finale this weekend -- lower than any episode helmed by Clarkson.
Back when the Top Gear 2002 was (re)booted, I wouldn't have said it but after 20-something seasons - there's no team that can replace Clarkson, Hammond and May. Their charisma together was quite unique and I loved the show, for all of its faults.
I never watch Top Gear. It's not my kind of thing. But I always had a sneaking admiration for the ability of Jeremy Clarkson, the wildly popular former host, to retain his job whilst thumbing his nose at everything the politically correct thought-police hold dear. When they finally find an excuse to sack Clarkson, the cheering and whooping from Broadcasting House could be heard all over the British Isles.
I always imagined that a politically correct replacement show would tank badly with its core demographic of non-metropolitan blokes. Viewers hate being told what to think, and I'm delighted to see they've rebelled in huge numbers.
...charmless, loud-mouthed ginger twat...
Try replacing the word 'ginger' with a pejorative term for any ethnic group other than the indigenous population of North West Europe and see how intelligent you sound.
Replacing the entire cast of Monty Python, and expecting the audience to like the shit that was just shoved down their throat. The only way Top gear is going to succeed is to get Clarkson, May, and Hammond back and fire the dumbass producer that Clarkson backhanded. The US version is crap too and was just cancelled.
might have been boors, but were never bores.
It's not his fault, alone. The show sucks. Matt Leblanc sucks.
BBC failed to realize that the popularity of the show was due to Clarkson, Hammond, and May combined. Watch an episode where it is only any two of them and it sucks. Those specific three COMBINED are just the right chemistry for hilarity. Watch the American TopGear, it sucks. Australian TopGear, it sucks.
The whole of TopGear UK was greater than the sum of its parts. Here's hoping that Amazon's The Grand Tour, with the real TopGear crew, won't let us down.
they really need someone dry and British.
Jimmy Carr it is then.
I was actually quite surprised they didn't recruit him for it. He's been on both the top and bottom of the leaderboard for star in a reasonably priced car. He has the humor that would keep the show going even in the post-Clarkson era. To a global audience he's as British as the queen. And of course, his name is Carr.
I don't know what he's doing for work right now, but it certainly doesn't get as much TV time on this side of the pond as Top Gear.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
The BBC, the new Top Gear production team, or Evans (or combination of those) made one major mistake - they attempted to copy the original Top Gear team ... ... ...
When TG US started, they also tried to set up the format identical to the UK original - and more or less failed. Until they found their own way and just stuck to the format of doing their show
And unless TG UK tries to actually do their own thing (albeit that might take another season or two of learning), they will fail again
I totally agree. I never did get what anyone ever saw in Evans.Have no idea why the BBC ever hired him for anything,
GT (the old TG team) will be hitting Amazon Prime in supposedly 8 weeks or so with a budget per episode that makes what the BBC gave them look like pocket change. Just what the doctor ordered to get rid of the awful aftertaste of the first season of the new Top Gear.
The formula for Top Gear, after Clarkson completely revamped it from a very pedestrian ordinary car review show, was lifted, almost directly from Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. A quintessential English novel that captured the relationship, in-fighting, sulking, and entertaining dynamic of three men on a boat trip. This theatre was played out week after week on Top Gear, when they went on their contrived, ridiculous, and entertaining adventures. By missing this enormous formula, the producers of the show delivered a turkey. Two hosts, do not give you the opportunity to pit two against one, with the teams always changing.
The signature segment, "star in a reasonably priced car" worked because the guests were driving cars that average people owned. The replacement with a super-charged mini on a part rally course misses this point completely. Top Gear was always silly, slightly annoying, superbly shot and soundtracked.
Chris Evans, who seems to only have one set of clothes in his wardrobe, was shouty, predictable, and seemingly incapable of interviewing anyone. Matt Le Blanc was surprisingly good.
My UID is prime!