It is, but there’s precedent for something similar. The original permanent host was Angus Deayton. He was caught up in a coke-and-hookers scandal and still hosted, at least until it became clear that having the host as the butt of all the jokes wasn’t great TV, and it also became obvious at the same time that the other two regulars really disliked him anyway.
The problem is that the chemistry you get with CHM is the kind you only get if you’re not really trying. When you *are *trying, the way many shows are, it tends to end up like one of those awkward gay threesomes we all remember from high school.
What?
Wandering off-topic, but did they? I recall Paul Merton’s masterpiece, unzipping his top to reveal a t-shirt printed with the tabloid front page trashing Deayton, but never took it as any more than a great opportunity for some glorious comedy. I’m not sure competing comedians (read ‘any comedians’) really like each other, but I didn’t get from it that they were glad to see the back of him (I definitely got from it that they regretted his absence in light of some of his replacements - Prescott, esp. 
)
Hard to find links from that long ago, but they resented the fact that he acted like the star of the show, when he was mostly reading scripted gags off an autocue, and they had to be a lot more spontaneous.
Fair point, I can see that creating resentment. I’ve never missed him, even in his other work I never really took to him and it’s not a difficult leap to understand Paul and Ian, even from their very different start points, finding him hard to work with.
I don’t know. About how many times do you need to be one before you are one? Because in Clarkson’s case…
(Not being a Brit but loving some of your shows)
True. But in rebuttal I give you Monty Python’s Flying Circus after Cleese left.
Mine will forever be “Some say that to unlock him you have to run your finger down his face, like that. And that if he were getting divorced from Paul McCartney he’d keep his stupid whining mouth shut. All we know is he’s called the Stig.”
They actively didn’t like him. I think after years of working together they weren’t even basic friends. No love was lost there.
It is a bit weird though, Deayton was from a solid comedy background. He was the straight man to Rowan Aitkinson and worked on KYTV, Alexi Sayle’s tv show, had a major role on One foot in the grave. I think he was voted sexy on some poll, and became the presenter on HIGNFY so might well have became a bit insufferable.
He may not be the jerk – I suspect Merton would not be the easiest to work with.
When guests on the show say something genuinely funny and get a laugh from the audience, and the camera cuts to Merton, he often looks annoyed. Then he’ll try some ham-fisted attempt to steal the joke and attention.
I consider myself a fan of his; this is pretty much the only thing I don’t like that he does. But it implies to me off-camera he may well be a nightmare.
I’ve been watching the show since 1988 (when I was six), and I was a longtime reader of Performance Car* and TG magazine until I moved to the states and the latter got too expensive. It’s kind of shocking to think about it, but Clarkson has been part of my life (as a journalist or on-air talent) for longer than anyone outside my immediate family. The only people who even come close are Morgan Freeman, the Undertaker, Iron Maiden and Bart Simpson. Top Gear and The Daily Show are the only things I DVR.
Needless to say, I have a lot invested in the show and in Clarkson. I was hugely upset when he was suspended and rushed out to sign the petition to bring him back.
A couple weeks’ reflection has changed all that. He brought this entirely on himself, and he’s been a liability to the BBC’s public relations people for decades. I hope they don’t get rid of the show. Yes, it will be different, but you can do it with May, Hammond, and somebody else. Just not Chris fucking Evans.
*Clarkson used to do a sort of “last word” column on the back page, and occasionally did road tests.
Got a bit of free time and continued watching Series 20. And it just got worse. In the episode, they create a hovercraft (and by “they”, it’s obviously not the 3 presenters), and take it on the Avon. From A to Z, it’s horrid. The fake reaction of people bothered by their antics, the idiocy of the presenters, and the fake drama of them going over a weir makes it just so … sad. I’m wondering now if it was always like this (painfully faked and scripted) and I’m just now catching on, or if they’ve gotten desperate for material. Either way, I’m not impressed by it of late.
No, it wasn’t always like that. It was always stage managed of course but in earlier seasons they were very good at making things seem natural. The races are a perfect example, they used to actually be very believable, it seemed to be a genuine race between car/bike/train/whatever. Nowadays they will lazily have Clarkson just take a detour in the car or randomly stop for some reason and then still try to pretend there is any drama about who is going to get to the finish line first. “Oh, James May got there on the boat only two minutes before Clarkson in the car, guess Jeremy shouldn’t have taken that 50 mile detour for a photoshoot on a beach.”
Its been like this for a while unfortunately, the scripting has gotten more and more obvious. Its just gone stale, and a change in presenter and format is no bad thing in my opinion.
Hall and his wife are under 24 hour security after a death threat. 'Death threats' made against BBC's Tony Hall investigated - BBC News
Some folks lack perspective.
I think we’re missing the BIG tragedy here.
This is Top Gear. Why the hell wasn’t this “fracas” caught on film?! It sounds like it would have made an AWESOME bit for the show!