Warring hosts and behind-the-scenes plotting: We reveal why Top Gear has turned into car-crash TV
It comes as exclusive Sun poll shows overwhelming majority of viewers preferred Clarkson’s Top Gear to Evans’s revamp
SITTING with his head in his hands on the set of the new Top Gear, Matt LeBlanc was overheard muttering: “What have I got myself into?”
It is a question nearly all involved with the revamped series, which launched last Sunday, have asked themselves since the BBC chose Chris Evans to rescue the programme in the wake of Jeremy Clarkson’s sacking.
Egos and infighting have turned what was once the ultimate car show into a car crash, with LeBlanc and Evans still at war over the former Friends star’s controversial donut stunt outside London’s Cenotaph.
That’s on top of our front-page revelation today that producers used canned laughter to cover the fact the pair’s banter failed to entertain the studio audience.
But the feuding hosts are just part of the story of Top Gear’s demise, which today we tell in full for the first time, as an exclusive Sun poll shows more than half of viewers preferred Clarkson’s old show.
Evans, 50, appears to be as popular with BBC bosses as he is the licence fee-paying public, of which an average of 4.3million tuned in for last Sunday’s debut — 1.3million less than the previous hosts’ ratings.
Panic at the corporation is so high that a contingency plan has been hatched to replace Evans, despite him being signed up to a three-year contract.
For now, they are doing all they can to reduce the role of Evans, as a presenter and behind the scenes.
An insider revealed: “Top Gear is the BBC’s most valuable show and the magic it had under Clarkson has gone.
“There is a real worry now the show could fail completely.
“Evans is at the epicentre of all these concerns as viewers don’t seem to like him and he is so powerful that it is hard to wrestle the show back off him.
“He’s a car fan but doesn’t know his technical stuff and audiences seem to prefer having proper motoring journalists rather than a loudmouth millionaire DJ.
“Top staff at the Beeb are already working out a Plan B if they decide to get rid.”
Evans and Co did little to ease the pressure when the latest disastrous setback saw them forced to abandon a £250,000 supercar film shoot in Norway.
BBC staff spent weeks ferrying a Ferrari and Lamborghini to Scandinavia, organising road closures and booking helicopters for filming.
But hours before the shoot was supposed to start last weekend, police ordered them not to break the 50mph speed limit and the stunt was cancelled, wasting thousands of pounds of licence fee cash.
Jorge Tangen of Norwegian firm Loopfilm, who had been booked to do shots, told The Sun:“Something was supposed to be happening over the weekend — it did not happen.
“I cannot say any more.”
The filming foul-up compounded the problems that have plagued the show since former hell-raiser and Radio 2 presenter Evans was drafted in to replace Clarkson, who was last year fired for punching producer Oisin Tymon.
Even celebrities have had a dig, with former Countdown star Carol Vorderman admitting to “switching off” last Sunday.
She added she was “looking forward to the proper boys on @amazonprimenow soon”, a reference to Clarkson and former Top Gear co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond’s Amazon Prime series, The Grand Tour, which is set to launch later this year.
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Former England rugby captain Mike Tindall, husband of the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips, told The Sun: “I wasn’t really impressed.
“We’re so used to other people doing it.
“It felt awkward.”
Ahead of the show, Evans claimed he would be “disappointed” if the first episode got fewer than five million viewers.
After initially ruling himself out, the job seemed too good to turn down for car nut Evans, who has spent around £50million on his own car collection.
His passion for motors along with his history of making popular telly such as TFI Friday made him seem like the perfect fit and he was unveiled as the new host last June.
But he has been his own worst enemy from the word go.
His dictator-like behaviour after insisting on an executive producer role meant even his closest colleagues could not cope, with producer Lisa Clark quitting the show in December after just five months.
Her position became untenable after she undermined Evans by warning him that filming was in danger of falling behind schedule.
More and more of Evans’s former colleagues came out in support of Clark, claiming the presenter was an “out-of-control bully” who had reduced numerous people to tears.
Even BBC Director-General Tony Hall was forced to jump to his star man’s defence this week after Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen raised concerns about his behaviour.
The wheels came completely off in March when LeBlanc, 48, was pictured performing donuts in a cloud of smoke outside London’s Cenotaph war memorial.
The damning pictures made headlines around the world and were a public embarrassment for everyone at the Beeb.
The corporation immediatetly sent in their head of factual entertainment Clare Pizey to take the “editorial lead” back off Evans.
But it was LeBlanc who took the fall, no thanks to his co-host and so-called friend.
Motormouth Evans, who did not want LeBlanc on the show in the first place, publicly humiliated the actor by pinning the blame for the Cenotaph scandal on him, resulting in an explosive fallout between them.
This week LeBlanc denied the controversy was down to him, telling a reporter in New Zealand: “We didn’t do anything that wasn’t agreed, allowed or accepted.”
His relationship with Evans has never recovered.
An insider said the row was behind the pair’s widely panned lack of chemistry on last week’s series opener, revealing: “Matt was really upset by Chris’s reaction. He felt he was stabbed in the back, undermined and then hung out to dry.
“Their relationship has been tense ever since. That’s why their on-screen chemistry seems really forced and fake.
“It is the main problem with the show that could easily have been avoided if it wasn’t for Evans’s ego.”
One of the few positives from the new and not-so-improved show was the reaction to American LeBlanc.
While Evans was blasted for his “shouty” approach, LeBlanc was praised for coming across as “cool” and “knowledgeable”.
In the space of an hour Evans’s worst nightmare became a reality.
The man he originally ruled out as co-host had become more popular than him.
To add to the blow, The Sun can reveal BBC chiefs are now desperate to extend LeBlanc’s one-series contract as a direct result of the audience feedback, offering him a small fortune as well as a producing role.
But LeBlanc, who has already signed up to produce and star in US sitcom Man With A Plan next year, is having huge doubts over whether to return.
A source said: “The first episode revealed that Matt is the key to the new Top Gear and not Chris as bosses originally thought.
“Nobody from foreign media even knew who Chris was when they had an international press launch.
“Matt can’t believe how many problems and the pressure Top Gear has faced and is unsure about whether to return.
“He just doesn’t want the hassle and who can blame him?”
With LeBlanc not exactly hiding his unhappiness from colleagues, our insider added of the moment production staff found him questioning his decision to sign up to the show: “Matt was seen sitting quietly with his head down.
“He looked drained and fed up. He wasn’t coping well with the pressure of the show and things constantly going wrong.
“He wasn’t in a happy place at all as he isn’t used to being under this much scrutiny — even in his Friends days.”
A BBC spokesman said it did not comment on staff contracts.
Yet with bookies offering odds on Evans being sacked after the first series, it seems he has already run out of gas.
You say it’s Evans ’n’ hell now Jezza’s gone
AN exclusive Sun poll shows an overwhelming majority of viewers preferred Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear to Chris Evans’s revamped show.
Some 60 per cent said the old version was better, with the same number saying they would rather watch The Sun writer’s upcoming series on Amazon Prime than the current BBC2 series.
The axed Top Gear host will front The Grand Tour with his former co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond from the autumn.
And following Evans’s ratings disaster in last Sunday’s opening episode, 20 per cent revealed they would NOT be tuning in for the second edition tomorrow.
The main complaint of the 1,000 people we asked across the country who watched the series debut was that Evans “shouted too much”, with 70 per cent not liking his presenting style.
Almost half preferred co-host Matt LeBlanc, the survey conducted by OnePoll found.
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20% of viewers said they will not tune in to tomorrow’s episode of Top Gear
70% said Chris Evans ‘shouted too much’
48% thought co-presenter Matt LeBlanc was better than Evans
53% thought Evans was ‘trying to imitate’ Clarkson
60% said they’d rather watch the old team’s upcoming Grand Tour series on Amazon Prime
10% watched sister show Extra Gear on BBC3 Online
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