It’s been a long time coming, but the first co-presenter to sit alongside Chris Evans in the new Top Gear series has now been officially confirmed by the BBC as Friends and Episodes star, Matt LeBlanc. The announcement comes as a bit of a surprise as the series has never had a presenter from outside the UK in its 39-year history, but it looks like it’s going to be upping its international credentials with the appointment of LeBlanc.
With the downward trajectory of the show’s international relations under axed former presenter Jeremy Clarkson, it’s a move that was urgent in a way that draws a line under the negatives. Hopefully, the appointment of both Chris Evans and the latest addition to the presenter team means that it will use more positive tactics to engage with audiences, instead of seemingly courting controversy as a means to drawing in higher viewing figures.
Matt LeBlanc appointment
For anyone that might be think that the new addition to the team is a bit random, the reality is that Matt has got a pretty good history of motoring craziness. As well as being a self-professed “car nut” – which is an odd way of saying he likes cars, not an indication that he likes to imagine himself under the firm rotating grip of a spanner – he’s also the reigning fastest celebrity around the Top Gear track, having twice been a guest on the show.
He recently presented the “best of” standalone show, Top Gear: The Races, which looked back on some of the best races from the show over its long history with everything from the Bullet Train challenge and an Aston Martin taking on the Euro Star to a Mitsubishi Evo racing a bobsleigh down an alpine mountain. However, apart from that he hasn’t had much experience as a presenter, so it’ll be interesting to see how he gets on next to Chris Evans when the show arrives later this year.
If the production team are looking for any feature ideas, the addition of LeBlanc to the team throws up a lot of potential with the slightly warped perception of his womanising antics thanks to his time in Friends, Joey and Episodes. We’re hoping this inspires a few “lads, lads, lads” challenges for him to have to seduce a road companion or just find a special friend en route during any race challenges using the single line, “how you doin'”.
Air date
The new look series has been confirmed to return to BBC 2 in May 2016, giving it a summer stint to win over the public in light of the massive changeover of personnel. The air date for the debut episode is yet to be announced, but with the confirmation that Matt LeBlanc will be going straight into filming production it’s finally starting to feel like it may well have put its troubles behind it.
The rest of the Top Gear presenter team
The BBC hasn’t officially confirmed the rest of the presenter team, but the press jumped the gun a couple of weeks ago by blabbing that motoring journalist Chris Harris and German racing driver Sabine Schmitz would be joining Chris Evans and now Matt LeBlanc. If this goes on to be verified by Mother then we could be looking at the new Top Gear presenter line-up, but if we’re honest we’ll be very surprised if things don’t get a shake up before May.
First impressions
Originally, we were a bit concerned that this was going to be the slow and creaking end to the wagon train of a show, but the introduction of Matt LeBlanc into the mix does a lot to make things interesting in the very least. The problem is how the dynamics will be affected by having two big name stars of the show instead of one big buffoon and his comic sidekicks. A lot still rides on the final appointment of the rest of the presenter team to see whether or not the relationships have got a chance of developing into enough comedy and tribulations to make it worth watching.
