The previous incarnation of Top Gear may have had its fair share of controversies, but one thing that it also had was the undeniable chemistry among the three hosts of the show. Like them or not, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond complemented each other perfectly and that played a huge part in Top Gear becoming the hit that it was until they left the show. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the current iteration of Top Gear as the show has been engulfed with rumors of discontent from the current crop of hosts. A lot of the rumors appear to have lead host Chris Evans at the center of it, and the latest whispers have it that co-host Matt LeBlanc is threatening to quit the show if Evans isn’t booted out first.

Apparently, the gulf between Evans and the rest of the hosting crew is getting wider to the point that the atmosphere between the hosts have become “frosty.” Evans, it seems, has been the biggest headache among the bunch for allegedly being rude, cold, and very hard to work with. If that’s not enough reason to worry, Evans is also rumored to be jealous of the reception that Chris Harris and Rory Reid have received and has become distant with the rest of the cast. And now, LeBlanc is rumored to have had enough of Evans to the point that he’s ready to throw in the towel if his co-host decides to stay on for the next season.

Even if these rumors are proven to be untrue, there’s no doubt that the current crop of hosts don’t have the same kind of chemistry that their predecessors had and that has translated itself directly into the episodes. So far, five episodes have aired and they have been largely maligned for a number of reasons, not the least of which for being an oversized copycat version of the old Top Gear

Clearly, the Top Gear. has a lot to think about before filming for the next season starts in September 2016. There’s no point on going back this season because the episodes are all in the can already. But next season is another story and the Top Gear. needs to do a lot of in-house cleaning to address the growing number of controversies engulfing the show.

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I’m not really the type to put too much stock on rumors because it’s hard to believe which ones are true or not. But there are things about the controversies surrounding Top Gear that don’t seem far-fetched at all. If anything, the product we see on television already shows that Chris Evans may not be the best fit to be the lead host of the show. At best, he has been scattered and all over the place. At worst, he’s trying too hard to be Jeremy Clarkson and he’s failing miserably at it.

To be fair, part of it is not his fault because Clarkson set a tone that proved to be very successful to fans of the show, and nearly impossible to replicate by someone who’s taking over his role. Evans had to fill enormous shows when he took the job as the lead host of the new show and maybe it’s not right to really judge his performance too harshly too early. I mean, he’s only five episodes into his new job. Give him some time and maybe he starts to leave his own imprint on the show that’s out of the shadows of his predecessor.

Unfortunately for Evans, this is a high-profile job and as such, there’s very little margin for error here. It hasn’t helped his cause that all these rumors have painted him to be in over his head as the lead host of the show and the pressure of being in that role has supposedly pushed him to be petty and impossible to work with, as some British papers have reported.

I don’t know how the BBC will react to all of these rumors but I do know that it has to be addressed at some point. Top Gear is too big and too important of a franchise to the British network and it can ill afford to have it get flogged every week. Hard as it is to swallow, the current season of Top Gear has failed to live up to the standards of the franchise and you can be sure that the BBC will have to make some tough decisions to right this ship.

Whether that involves a change in hosts for the next season is still unclear. But something has to be done, and it has to be done before Top Gear sinks into irrelevancy.