‘Top Gear’: BBC series loses Chris Evans as presenter

When is the drama going to end for “Top Gear” on the BBC? After the whole Jeremy Clarkson mess, we’re pretty darn confident that some network executives were out there just hoping that they were going to get a reprieve from all of this drama. Not so fast; instead, they got this.

After just a handful of episodes, Chris Evans has stepped down as one of the presenters of the program; the network does confirm that Matt LeBlanc, Rory Reid, Chris Harris, Sabine Schmitz and Eddie Jordan are all expected to be back in some capacity for the next season.

In a statement on Twitter, Evans himself seemed to make it clear that this gig was simply not the right fit for the two parties:

“Stepping down from Top Gear. Gave it my best shot but sometimes that’s not enough. The team are beyond brilliant, I wish them all the best. Full steam ahead then with Radio 2, CarFest, Children In Need, 500 Words and whatever else we can dream up in the future.”

Ultimately the ratings for the series as of late haven’t been great, but this is one of those institutions that it is really hard to imagine it ever really going anywhere. It just has such an enormous legacy, and we do think that it is supported by being fairly popular around the world. Also, there are always plenty of big-name celebrities out there who are fairly eager to get behind the wheel of a car, so it definitely has that going for it.

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