There have been troubling signs surrounding the upcoming revamp of BBC’s Top Gear. A new report suggests that lead host Chris Evans fought against hiring Friends veteran and car guy Matt LeBlanc as a co-host, and the show’s launch has now been delayed two weeks.
According to a report by the Express, another tabloid-y British magazine, the new BBC Top Gear has been pushed back two weeks from its original May 8th release date and will now launch on May 22nd. That’s not very surprising though.
What is surprising is the the report claiming that host Chris Evans didn’t originally want to hire Matt LeBlanc as a co-host, arguing to producers that LeBlanc was a has-been. In addition, the report also claims that executive producer Lisa Clark has quit the show over clashes with its direction and its main host.
From the Express:
The source claimed: “It was Lisa who suggested Matt, but Evans’ reply was, ‘He’s old hat, what do we want him for?’”
Apparently Evans did not get his way, as LeBlanc has since been officially announced as one of the five co-hosts on Top Gear alongside Chris Evans, also including Chris Harris, Sabine Schmidt, Eddie Jordan, and Rory Reid.
This also isn’t the first time we’ve heard of issues between executive producer Lisa Clark and Evans, as it was reported back in January that the two were having problems after the script editor for the new show quit. That earlier report also claimed Evans allegedly threatened to also quit the show over issues of “micro-management” just a few months into filming its first new season. Starting to notice a pattern?
The new Express report either backs up the earlier claim or copies it, claiming that Chris Evans wants to have almost total control over the new Top Gear in a similar manner as its old producer Any Wilman, who used to run the show with almost full autonomy with former hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.
We’ve been over and over and over the multiple reports of the new Top Gear’s issues, and true or not, the new show is coming up on its first season in a storm of bad publicity.
There’s no clear source yet as to whether or not the show has officially been pushed back from its original May 8th launch date, but we’ll let you know more as we have it.
Contact the author at justin@jalopnik.com or @WestbrookTweets.