Chris Evans quits TFI to focus on ‘Top Gear’

Chris Evans will not be presenting any more series of TFI Friday as he throws his efforts into his new role as Top Gear host.

He had returned this autumn to front 10 new episodes of the show he first hosted from 1996 to 2000, but a source for the show confirmed there were “no plans for TFI to come back”.

The source said: “TFI was only ever envisaged as a one-off series. There have been some preliminary conversations about the potential for it to return but timing difficulties on both sides mean that there are no plans for TFI to come back.”

Evans’s attention instead will be on Top Gear which returns in early May with him at the helm, alongside German racing driver Sabine Schmitz, journalist Chris Harris and F1 driver David Coulthard.

They replace Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May who left the show when Clarkson’s contract was not renewed after he punched a producer. The Sunday Times, a newspaper that Clarkson writes for, reports that preparations for the show are “in a shambles”.

Evans admitted in a recent magazine column that he had worked for 26 hours straight one day covering his BBC radio show, TFI Friday and Top Gear.

A source close to Top Gear is reported as saying: “Chris has been overcommitted, with even BBC bosses surprised that he took on TFI as well as Top Gear.”

Losing the knowledgeable production team behind the show has also caused teething troubles.

Clarkson, Hammond, and May have joined the Amazon Prime online service to present a new motoring show next year.