You may recall that back in mid-March, mechanic-host Edd China announced that he was leaving the popular car-flipping show Wheeler Dealers because of his fear that the network in charge, Velocity, wanted to dumb the show down to the shitty level that defines too many car shows. Edd’s former co-host, Mike Brewer, is dealing with all this by calling Edd a “traitor.” Drama!
Now, to be fair to Mike, people have been so upset at Edd leaving the show that they’ve resorted to sending Mike death threats, because the internet is full of garbage-packed typing condoms masquerading as people and this shit happens. Edd did issue a statement asking the collective confederacy of dipshits to knock it off.
And Edd made it quite clear in his initial statement that he was leaving the show for very specific reasons:
In particular, the detailed and in depth coverage of my fixes in the workshop; what I consider to be the backbone and USP of the programme, are something Velocity feel should be reduced...
However, this new direction is not something I am comfortable with as I feel the corners I was being asked to cut compromised the quality of my work and would erode my integrity as well as that of the show, so I have come to the conclusion that my only option is to let Velocity get on with it, without me.
While Edd never mentioned his work with Mike as a reason why he was leaving, Mike seems to have taken it personally, as we can see in this now-deleted tweet:
Come on, Mike. Traitor? Really? And, it doesn’t seem like Edd “didn’t say” regarding his departure since he did nothing but ‘say’ for over four minutes in the video he published explaining his actions. Here it is again:
I mean, he even makes a point to specifically thank Mike for helping make the show what it was:
All of this is, of course, absurd drama over what’s really a decision made about creative differences regarding the show. If Mike is feeling the heat because Edd’s leaving it’s because, let’s face it, Edd was the best part of that show, and I suspect that deep down Mike knows this to be true.
Calling Edd a “traitor” isn’t going to make the pain go away, but I think we can all sympathize with the fundamental sense of loss and panic.
Get a grip, Mike. Be happy your ass is on television driving cars at all. Make your show, let Edd make his or whatever he’s going to do, and grow up already.
Hat tip to Freddy!