Top Gear, Ruined
If there was any doubt surrounding the future certain failure of Top Gear, it was put to rest today.
Eddie Jordan — famous for running a Formula 1 team into the ground, being the Irish orange yin to David Coulthard’s pasty, Scottish yang during BBC Formula 1 coverage, and for making Bernie Ecclestone look like a normal-sized human being — has been tipped as the third host of Top Gear, reports Radio Times.
Plot lost.
It was announced Thursday that Matt LeBlanc would co-host the British “motoring programme” with BBC Radio star Chris Evans. Others, such as Sabine Schmitz and Chris Harris, were also rumored to host the show. However, it seems those with actual driving abilities will be relegated to second fiddle status as Jordan will be standing (presumably on a box) beside LeBlanc and Evans.
Jordan, 67, ran Jordan Grand Prix from 1991 to 2005 before it was sold off and rebranded as Midland. In 2009, he joined the BBC’s F1 coverage team. He’s a Tory, much like the outgoing Jeremy Clarkson, and also an amateur Murray Walker.
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Huh? I stop paying attention for a while and all this happens. I would have been interested to watch a show with Sabine Schmitz and Chris Harris, but with that lineup? Probably not. Maybe someone at the BBC looked around and said, "Wait! We already made a series with great drivers in Fifth Gear, but no one really watched it."
Photo shows three men who aren't paying attention to each other, and aren't on the same page. I'm sure there's some symbolism of something or other there.
Never watched Friends (or Seinfeld, for that matter) probably because at that time, I lived in Manhattan, had that lifestyle, and had friends who also had that lifestyle in Manhattan. Now, we'd all be in some crappy part of Brooklyn, but there was a time when mere yuppies could have a real NYC Apt. If you ain't 212 you aren't in "the city". (yup, I'm old) Still, Matt LeBlanc was lots of fun on TG, and he gets kudos for being the fastest Star in a RPC. I think he'd be a good host. Fifth Gear left me cold. I tried to like it, but, no. I'd rather watch smallblocks be rebuilt on Velocity TV. You can occasionally capture lightening in a bottle. It is real tough to make that lightening to order.
I feel you are being a little hard on EJ. We don't know his role in the show, and frankly, when he is on the podium giving interviews I breathe a sigh of relief, as F1 tries to pull in celebrities who do an abysmal job (George Lucas, Schwarzenegger, etc.) at interviewing drivers in a sport they just don't pay attention to that much.