The controversy around Jeremy Clarkson has more or less settled down, as fans ended up accepting the fact that their favorite host is no longer with the show, and he’s getting replaced. Chris Evans, who’s taking his place, seems rather split about his situation. On one hand, he’s obviously excited to be taking over “Top Gear” from Jeremy Clarkson, but on the other, he seems to be very anxious about the whole ordeal.
According to Evans, there’s been a lot of pressure on him for his upcoming debut, and he compared it to feeling like “the new Doctor Who”. He went on to say that this is the most challenging move in his entire career so far, even more than the time when he took over the Radio 2 show from Terry Wogan.
After Wogan left, people apparently kept telling Evans that he had “big shoes to fill” and there were some high expectations from him, and the same story is repeating over and over again right now. He added that the people saying this are not wrong by any means, but he is a bit confused about the redundancy of the statement, as he’s well aware of his situation.
He also joked that Clarkson is very tall, so “they’re even bigger shoes”. “Top Gear” has gone through many presenters, and it does seem to be a bit like “Doctor Who” in this regard, but on the other hand, the importance of Jeremy Clarkson is undoubted and Chris Evans has a lot to live up to once he takes on that role.
He went on to say that the presenting team is almost ready for a return to the screen, and they’re getting very close. According to him, the show will not be removing popular segments such as “star in a reasonably priced car”, as it would be “silly to throw the bath out with the bathwater”. We can understand where he’s coming from, as it would definitely not make much sense for the show to change its format now that it’s in the middle of a transition of its hosts.
Fans were already annoyed enough by the decision to remove Clarkson as it was, and though they tried to get him back on the show and convince the executives to change their minds, the decision was final. The situation around Clarkson was quite controversial and generated a lot of attention in the press, and even after the details came out, fans were still angry at the person who got punched by Clarkson more than the show’s producers.
As it turns out, the victim in the scenario had nothing to do with the complaint that was filed against Clarkson, and his subsequent dismissal. This was a decision from above and nobody could say anything – but this didn’t stop the show’s fans from acting inconsiderate for a period of a few weeks.
Now though, the drama is in the past and “Top Gear” can resume at full speed. And now that the tensions have eased a little bit, some fans actually seem excited for the new installments of the show and are interested to see what changes might be coming.
As we said above, most fans would prefer the show to stay as it is for the time being with minimal changes, but sooner or later the producers are going to have to evolve it in order to adapt it to the new presenting style of Chris Evans. This will take some time as he’s settling in his new role of course.