New look Top Gear

History being the key word. It comes from people hailing you as being the second coming and you revel in it without realising you're acting like a tosser. James Corden went through the same phase. I'd say Evans has tried his best to clean up his act, but whether all the claims of his off-screen misbehaviour is true is another matter.

Difficult because if Evan's ignores the ratings then that gets reported and likewise as he has, acknowledged the lower ratings then that becomes the story. Don't forget the press narrative is that the new Top Gear is bad, and every article will be skewed to report this. FWIW I actually enjoyed yesterday's episode, carry on as you are BBC!

They replaced a bully with another renowned bully...then seemed surprised when people questioned that logic. But that's the BBC, forever shooting itself in the foot.

The issue is Evans is the one being victimised here.

BooHoo. I feel as much sympathy for him as I'm sure the countless people he's victimised over his career do.

Who ever the BBC had put in would have had the same treatment.

Actually that should read,
"They replaced a bully (who owned up to his wrongdoing) with an alleged bully."

Even then, alleged because some of his former colleagues with a grudge decided to sell their stories to Sun "journalists". Whether these stories are true, that's upto Chris Evans to confirm or deny. If Evans was really known as a bully, no-one would want to work with him!

Oh look, here's yet another "Chris Evans is crap at hosting TG article" from The Sun . . . !
Fans call for Jenson Button to replace Chris Evans as Top Gear presenter.

Let's not forget The Sun's wonderful history of publishing stories with absolutely no truth to them...

And The Sun is not exactly pro-BBC.

Breaking News : Evans hits rock bottom as he's spotted drinking on the floor

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3631727/Top-Gear-host-Chris-Evans-hits-skids-spotted-drinking-street-just-days-loses-audience-episode-two.html#article-3631727

Because of course we know the context of why he's sat there like that...

This is all very interesting to those of us who watched Evans' battles with the press in the 90s - he wouldn't be averse to taking them on, leading to them writing about him, leading to him then attacking them the next day. It actually made for really good radio.

The difference here is he's trying to get a rebooted show off the ground, and he's got a much more tame radio show to do. I can't imagine middle England taking well to old-style Evans making a reappearance.