Top Gear’s First In-Studio Shoot Goes Awry

Top Gear Poster (Credit: © BBC)

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past year, then you know that Top Gear is preparing a return with a new cast of car nuts and Chris Evans—the U.K. radio host, not Captain America—leading the charge. You have also likely heard just how poorly things are going, as reports of problems like Evans not being able to drive and talk, his me-first attitude and his iffy dedication to the show keep popping up. Well, the issues continue, as TG’s first in-studio shoot went completely off track.

According to The Sun (a U.K. newspaper), the issues began with Brad Pitt bailing on being the show’s first guest and progressed from there. Apparently, the audience wasn’t overly responsive to Evans’ jokes, and he went on a tirade, yelling “Don’t fold your arms, don’t have your hands in your pockets. F***, f***, f***, f***, f***.” Then he followed that up with, “Don’t be quiet. Talk among yourselves. Jesus Christ! Can you all hear me?” Apparently, he wasn’t overly fond of the crickets he heard during taping.

In addition to berating the audience, Evans also took 10 takes to get his opening monologue right. Luckily for Evans, he wasn’t the only presenter having issues this time around, as the report goes on to claim that Matt LeBlanc of Friends fame repeatedly flubbed his lines.

This combination of issues resulted in shooting taking more than four hours. Typically, that wouldn’t be a huge deal, but this comes after Evans mocked the original cast for taking three hours to shoot their in-studio segments.

So, is this the end of the line for Top Gear? No, I think this is more the growing pains any successful show goes through when its original cast is gutted. There could, however, be massive changes on the horizon if things don’t shape up soon.