It was always going to be hard to live up to the antics of Jeremy Clarkson, Captain Slow - James May, and Richard 'the Hamster' Hammond, but has Top Gear lost control?
Poor Chris Evans; now that he is the face of the new Top Gear, he has really taken the brunt of all of the negative comments. It has been reported that the programme has lost a third of its audience - but why? Yes there are loyal fans, yes the scriptwriters haven't changed from the previous formula - perhaps the BBC need to realise that Chris Evans just attracts a much different audience to Jeremy Clarkson?
In terms of John Fiske's Fandom theory, we aren't necessarily dealing with die hard fans in either case, but Clarkson with his witty and controversial comments and sometimes senseless motor mouth attracts a very different audience to the more tame and family friendly Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans.
Stuart Heritage's article for The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jun/07/top-gear-in-defence-of-chris-evans
