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TOP GEAR IN CRISIS! TOP GEAR PLAGUED BY CATASTROPHE! TOP GEAR RESPONSIBLE FOR WORLD HUNGER!
Is it just us, or do some people really seem to want the new Top Gear to fail?
This isn't exactly unexpected. For some reason, we love bringing other people down, whether it's revelling in the failure of a TV show or tittering about how a celebrity might have put on a pound or two.
Add on top of that the viewers' enduring love for Clarkson, Hammond and May, and Chris Evans was always going to face an uphill battle in convincing people that the new Top Gear would be a success, even if he did get a Friends star on board.
The first episode hasn't even aired yet, but it's already been written off by certain sections of the press. Whether it's rumours of trouble behind the scenes, Chris Evans apparently being a diva or that Cenotaph incident, it seems like we haven't been able to open a paper recently without a new story ragging on how rubbish it's all going to be.
We even spied a story today wondering whether the series is turning into the "most hated car show of all time".
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Now let's just take a moment and remember that Jeremy Clarkson was fired after he punched someone, because he wasn't impressed with a platter of cold meat. Chris Evans' biggest crime so far is that, well, he's not Jeremy Clarkson.
And honestly, all those damning stories don't stand up to that much scrutiny. Chris Evans got carsick and barfed! (Apparently most people would, because of the G-force of driving so fast.) Chris Evans is a diva on set! (There is no set yet.) The team filmed near the Cenotaph! (Yes, this is quite bad, but apparently perspective made it look worse than it was.) They just turned up and filmed at a rugby club without permission! (They had permission.)
In fact, critics are so desperate to find faults in the show that they have suggested both that a) Chris and Matt LeBlanc don't get on, and b) that Chris and Matt LeBlanc get on so well they've been eating too much fast food and are piling on the pounds.
(Alright, so we quite enjoyed that second rumour: particularly because the pair have apparently been gorging on KFC buckets together. That just makes us like them more.)
But why is this happening? Is it just that people enjoy things failing? Or does it go deeper than that?
Well, Matt's mate Stephen Mangan certainly had a theory when he appeared on Good Morning Britain recently, saying: "An awful lot of hysteria has been whipped up by the BBC's commercial rivals, as far as I can see."
Could he be onto something? Surely these non-BBC publications would never attack the Beeb, would they? They never have in the past, have they? And surely they'd have nothing to gain if one of its biggest and most successful shows failed? Surely not.
And surely The Sun, one of the biggest skeptics about the new Top Gear project, isn't looking out for Clarkson, is it? Even if he's one of their biggest columnists?
Surely not.
It's not like Chris Evans isn't a successful broadcaster: he took over from the utter legend that is Terry Wogan on Radio 2's Breakfast Show and people still love him. That's an almost impossible feat - and also just so happens to prove that he can take the mantle from a beloved figure and make it work.
Obviously, Top Gear could still be shit. But let's give it a chance, eh?
