Top Beer! Chris Evans is announced as the new presenter of Top Gear after signing three-year deal with BBC to host show with all-new line-up
- Evans says he is 'thrilled' and show is his 'favourite programme of all time'
- Promises to 'respect what has gone on before and take the show forward'
- BBC say production on new Top Gear series will start in next few weeks
- Evans, 49, confirms he won't be leaving current position as Radio 2 host
New presenter: Chris Evans - pictured enjoying a drink in London today - has signed a three-year deal to lead an all-new Top Gear line-up on the BBC
Chris Evans was tonight revealed as the new host of BBC motoring programme Top Gear, in a deal said to be worth £3million.
The radio and television presenter has signed a three-year contract to lead an all-new line-up of presenters for the popular BBC Two show.
BBC Radio 2 host Evans is known to be a car enthusiast and previously insisted he would never take on the role.
He will replace Jeremy Clarkson, who was sacked earlier this year for assaulting a producer at a hotel.
Evans, who is also a motoring columnist for the Mail on Sunday, said: ‘I’m thrilled, Top Gear is my favourite programme of all time.
'Created by a host of brilliant minds who love cars and understand how to make the massively complicated come across as fun, devil-may-care and effortless.
‘When in fact of course, it's anything but and that's the genius of Top Gear's global success.'
The 49-year-old added: ‘I promise I will do everything I possibly can to respect what has gone on before and take the show forward.’
And about 20 minutes after the announcement tonight, he tweeted: 'First tweet as new Top Gear host. I would like to say Jeremy, Richard and James are the greatest. And no, I'm not leaving the Radio 2 Breakfast Show.'
His deal is worth £3million, reported The Sun.
Outgoing host James May tweeted his support for the new presenter: 'Well: best of luck to Chris Evans and the future of Top Gear (b. 1977). That's a ballsy call, frankly, and to be admired.'
Kim Shillinglaw, controller of BBC Two and BBC Four, added: ‘I am so delighted that Chris will be presenting the next series of Top Gear.
‘His knowledge of and passion for cars are well-known and combined with his sheer inventiveness and cheeky unpredictability he is the perfect choice to take our much-loved show into the future.
Seen today: Evans enjoyed a drink with a friend at The Lansdowne pub in Primrose Hill, north-west London
Happy man: Evans (left, today; and right, last Friday) is also a motoring columnist for the Mail on Sunday
Former hosts: Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson in a preview of their final Top Gear show
Out with the old, in with the news: Clarkson appeared on Evans's BBC Radio 2 show (above) last month
'Chris is a huge fan of Top Gear and has great respect for the craft and work ethic of one of the best production teams in the world.
‘He knows the phenomenal attention to detail it takes to make a single sequence of Top Gear, let alone a whole series. He is already full of brilliant ideas and I can't wait for him to get started.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘Production on the new series of Top Gear will start in the next few weeks and more information will be announced in due course.’
It represents a U-turn for Evans, who in March dismissed rumours he would take over, tweeting: 'I can categorically say I am not and will never be running for office. Please discount my candidacy.'
I'm staying: Evans, 49, tweeted tonight to confirm he would not be leaving the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show
In the car with Clarkson: The announcement comes four days after Evans's hit Nineties show, TFI Friday, made a sensational return to TV screens last week, pulling in a staggering 4.3million viewers
Warrington-born Evans, who is married to professional golfer Natasha Shishmanian, was spotted earlier today enjoying a drink with a friend at a pub in Primrose Hill, north-west London.
Neil Midgley, media commentator for Forbes.com, told Sky News tonight: 'I think it's a good choice.
'I think fans will, in particular, be happy, because obviously there isn't a million miles between Chris Evans, middle-aged white guy, and Jeremy Clarkson, middle-aged white guy.
'But I think therein lies any potential problem, if there is a problem, which is that it is a safe choice.
Couple: Evans is married to professional golfer Natasha Shishmanian (pictured left in 2007, and right in 2010)
Waving goodbye: Clarkson was dropped from the hit motoring show for assaulting a colleague at a hotel
Revealed on Twitter: The news of Evans's appointment was announced by the BBC online at 7.20pm today
Changed his mind: It represents a U-turn for Evans, who in March dismissed rumours he would take over, tweeting: 'I can categorically say I am not and will never be running for office. Please discount my candidacy'
'This was an opportunity obviously for the BBC, as they said they were going to, to undergo a creative reinvention of Top Gear - and they've gone for the British TV presenter who is perhaps the closest to Jeremy Clarkson as you could have possibly got.'
The BBC's announcement at 7.20pm today comes after his hit Nineties show, TFI Friday, made a sensational return to TV screens last week, pulling in a staggering 4.3million viewers.
The hugely popular series ended in 2000, but Friday’s special episode paved the way for the show to return to Channel 4 - with a huge 4.3million viewers.
Last week fans got their first look at Top Gear’s final episode featuring Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, which will wrap up the 22nd series of BBC Two's show on June 28.
Viewers will see Clarkson, Hammond and May behind the wheel of classic cars and beaten-up 4x4s in their final challenges as a trio.
The show has been off air since March, after its future was thrown into the air when Clarkson was suspended after assaulting producer Oisin Tymon at a hotel in North Yorkshire.
It was reported Hammond and May were offered deals in the region of £1million a year to stay with the BBC. The contracts of all three presenters all ran out earlier this year.
Andy Wilman, Top Gear's former executive producer and an old school friend of Clarkson, has also left the show, sparking rumours he was joining up with the trio to make an alternative show, with Netflix and ITV said to be among the broadcasters in the running to screen it.
Other celebrities who had been tipped to replace Clarkson as the host on Top Gear included Dermot O'Leary, Philip Glenister, Jodie Kidd, Guy Martin, Sue Perkins and Stephen Fry.
The rollercoaster career of Top Gear's new host
Turnaround: Evans, pictured in 1993, successfully reinvented himself from a wild laddish boozer to a reliable voice and face of broadcasting
Chris Evans's career is a riches to rags to riches affair that has seen him successfully reinvent himself from a wild laddish boozer to a reliable voice and face of broadcasting.
He leapt into people's homes in the early 1990s with TV monsters like the Big Breakfast, Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, TFI Friday and one of the most sought-after jobs in radio, the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show.
He then went off the rails amid an orgy of heavy drinking in the dying days of the Britpop era, married and divorced the then teenage pop star Billie Piper, bought a radio station and imploded.
But he made a comeback as an older, wiser and safer broadcaster, landing the biggest job in radio by replacing Sir Terry Wogan in the breakfast slot on Radio 2 and becoming a co-presenter on the One Show on BBC One.
Now aged 49 and a grandfather, the famous petrol-head with a penchant for Ferraris is to take the helm of one of the BBC's prized assets, Top Gear.
Warrington-born Evans worked his way up from a series of odd jobs - including working as a strip-o-gram - to presenting a show on Manchester's Piccadilly Radio.
He moved on to television hits at Channel Four before being drafted in to Radio 1 again by then boss Matthew Bannister in 1995 - he had been there briefly before finding TV fame - in a bid to rid the station of its 'Smashie and Nicey' DJs.
But his time on the station was full of controversy, with saucy features and near-the-knuckle comments. And he traded on his star status and £1 million salary to behave ever more outrageously.
Ex-couple: Evans wed Dr Who star Billie Piper, 16 years his junior, in 2001 after a short romance. They parted in 2004, divorced in 2007 and remain friends
His booze benders with pals such as Paul Gascoigne added to his infamy, as well as his downfall.
Evans with his Music Radio Personality of the Year Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2007
Evans fell out with Bannister when he was refused a day off each Friday to present TFI - a show he brought back for a nostalgic one-off last weekend.
The DJ had been allowed to miss a show because of a hangover, had his holiday entitlement doubled to 12 weeks and had 30 minutes sliced off the programme to give him a lie-in.
He eventually quit in early 1997 - and did not go back to serve out his notice.
That year he managed to raise £85 million to buy Virgin Radio - where he was breakfast show presenter - to absorb into his Ginger Media empire, which was later sold Scottish Media Group for £225 million.
He continued to front TFI Friday but by 2000, the show - once pioneering and cutting edge - had lost its way and viewers deserted it.
Channel 4 axed the show and Evans did not return to present the final few programmes, with celebrities like Sir Elton John instead brought in as host.
Having been previously married to Loose Women's Carol McGiffin, Evans wed Dr Who star Piper, 16 years his junior, in 2001 after a short romance.
Evans prepares to drive off in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in London in 2012. The famous petrol-head with a penchant for Ferraris is to take the helm of one of the BBC's prized assets, Top Gear
His radio career also suffered as his epic benders continued. It led to him being sacked from Virgin after claiming he was too ill to work but being spotted boozing with Piper.
Evans met Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall last month
A lengthy legal battle with SMG ensued for what he claimed was unfair dismissal but which the High Court dismissed.
Evans and Piper parted in 2004, divorced in 2007 and remain friends.
Evans's rise back to the top started in 2005 when he presented some shows on Radio 2. He replaced long-serving Johnnie Walker in the drive-time slot the following year and stepped, more riskily, into Sir Terry's breakfast show shoes in 2010.
Last year he pulled in 9.91 million listeners each week, giving his show the biggest audience recorded in the UK since the current measurement methods were launched.
He returned to television in 2010 with the One Show as co-host on a Friday.
He married Natasha Shishmanian in 2007 and has two children, Eli and Noah, with the golfer, as well as an adult daughter Jade. He has credited his young family with bringing him the stability to find new success.
One constant has been Evans's love of sports cars, especially Ferraris. His collection is worth millions of pounds and every year raises large sums for Comic Relief by auctioning off the chance for punters to drive some of them to the south of France.
After Jeremy Clarkson's high-profile departure from Top Gear for attacking producer Oisin Tymon, Evans distanced himself from taking over. Until now.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3126945/Chris-Evans-new-presenter-Gear-signing-three-year-deal-present-show.html#ixzz3dH4K3ptY
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