If being named as the new lead host of Top Gear isn’t enough excitement for the ginger presenter, Chris Evans has also confirmed that he will be making a return to Channel 4 in Autumn this year with a whole new series of TFI Friday to boot. Following on from the success of the 90-minute live special anniversary show in June 2015, Evans has decided to relent entirely and put together a whole series of shows in the build up to Christmas, so he’ll have his work cut out for him with the new iteration of Top Gear already in production and Autumn fast approaching.
Eight shows have been announced as of yet, so they’re clearly taking a shorter term view on the new series compared to their heyday when the series aired forty-one episode per run until it all came crashing down to a halt with only seven episodes in the final series in 2000. However, we’d expect it to return to be an ongoing series, with maybe a longer run in the future if it turns out to be as successful as the anniversary special was back in June.
While we thought it was a little rusty around the edges, the special did bring back a lot of the anarchic fun and unpredictability of the old show, which first aired in 1996 with a total of 188 shows in its back catalogue. More importantly from a popularity point of view it managed to pick up a peak audience of 4.2 million viewers, making it the most popular show on the night. If this is anything to go by, the TFI Friday return shouldn’t have too much difficulty in topping the rating figures in its time slot throughout autumn and winter 2015.
The show was always the domain of the younger, fresher faced portion of the TV watching public and luckily for Chris and Channel 4 that continued to be the case with the 90-minute anniversary special. It managed to draw in the highest share of viewers on the night aged between 16 and 34, which is no mean feat considering the fact that it was last seen on the telly 15 years ago. Though things have definitely moved on since 2000 in terms of TV programmes, and a lot of the viewers from last time around will have aged a little (hopefully not as badly as us), it’s clearly still capable of entertaining the kids of today.
The new series promises to bring back a similarly impressive line-up of celebrity guests, great music choices and mental comedy segments as they did the first time around. You’ve only got to look at everything that was crammed into the special in June – Blur, Liam Gallagher, Lewis Hamilton, Roger Daltry, Mani, Will, Freak or Unique, Evans’ mum, Amanda Seyfried – to see that there’s a lot of potential in the upcoming series when it gets up to full white heat levels of energy.
We’re still a little cautious about the prospect of the return of the show to Channel 4 considering the sketchy and slightly frayed delivery of the special and the fifteen year gap from its initial demise, and even more since the height of its popularity. On the other hand, we’re probably just as nostalgic for the crazy nature of the show’s origins and if Chris and team can find a way of tapping into that youthful, unapologetic spirit then we could be in for eight very special episodes of TFI Friday in the run up to Christmas this year, taking a bit of the edge off the dark nights that will start to creep in over the next couple of months.
