Another week, another story about how bad things are over at the new version of "Top Gear." About a week ago British tabloid The Sun reported that host Chris Evans hates his American co-host Matt LeBlanc. Now The Sun is back with a scintillating new story about the "diva-style behaviour" of Evans. Apparently Evans is having trouble balancing his two jobs; he hosts a morning show on BBC Radio 2 in addition to "Top Gear." Anonymous sources say this balancing act has driven him to the breaking point.
The insider reveals one incident that saw Evans "shout so viciously that the producer was reduced to tears and an engineer had to tell him to stop." People get pissed at work all the time, but this does sound extreme. Still, does freaking out on someone mean that the return of the world's most popular automotive TV show is in jeopardy? Probably not. Evans is working a tight schedule and juggling a bunch of responsibilities, so him throwing a fit, while uncool and unprofessional, isn't exactly a sign of the end times. In addition to throwing hissy fits the host of two shows is also said to have a bit of an ego problem. Let's see what The Sun's anonymous source says about that.
"Chris' ego is out of control and he's behaving far worse than Clarkson ever did - which is the opposite of what the Top Gear change was meant to create." Wow, that does sound pretty damn bad. What do Evan's bosses think of this? Mark Linsey, the BBC's director of studios and Bob Shennan, the boss of Radio 2, issued a joint statement regarding Chris Evans and his behavior. Since taking on Top Gear alongside his Radio 2 breakfast show, Chris has displayed even greater commitment and professionalism." Now you wouldn't expect the BBC to cop to any bad behavior, so take this brief statement with a grain of salt, just like The Sun's reporting.
At the end of the day, though, none of this is really news. Anonymous sources have been saying that Chris Evans is a control freak since filming began. And so what if he is? He hosts Britain's most popular morning radio show and one of its most popular TV shows. We're going to reserve our judgement until the new season of "Top Gear" airs. The bits we've see so far, like Matt LeBlanc in an Ariel Nomad, don't look half bad!