Evans quits Top Gear

Stuff reports:

Top Gear’s new host Chris Evans has quit after just one season, a day after reports of a police investigation into claims of sexual assault.

Evans took to Twitter to announce his resignation overnight, saying: “Gave it my best shot but sometimes that’s not enough”.

He made no mention of newspaper reports a day earlier that he would soon be interviewed by London’s Metropolitan Police over a former colleague’s allegations that he groped her and exposed himself to her and other staff at a workplace in the 1990s.

Evans was cited as the cause of a ratings plummet on the rebooted show, amid reports of a feud between him and co-host Matt LeBlanc, of Friends fame.

Just 1.9 million viewers tuned in for its final episode of the season on Sunday night. Its premiere in May drew 4.4 million viewers – still well down from about 5.8 million who tuned in during previous seasons hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

His resignation will have nothing to do with the historic claims, but all to do with massively low ratings and LeBlanc falling out with him.

There’s hope for future seasons with LeBlanc who has been excellent.