Top Gear (1977 TV Series) - Demise and Relaunch

Demise and Relaunch

Following many well-known presenters' departure in 1999/2000 the Top Gear audience fell from a peak of six million to under three million. Initially, James May took over Clarkson's spot, presenting reviews of the Rover 75 and Lexus IS200, for example. Following Clarkson's departure, the programme was jointly presented by Quentin Willson and Kate Humble, who ran an ongoing test throughout the programme between reports. Brendan Coogan (who had joined in 1998), left the show a year later after being convicted of drunk driving. In 2000, Jason Barlow joined from Channel 4's driven, and joined the existing line-up for the final 53 episodes. The programme ran almost continuously between September 2000 and October 2001, and despite regularly being the most watched show on BBC Two, the channel decided the format needed to be dramatically refreshed. However a Top Gear special with Jason Barlow being the only remaining presenter - Vicki Butler-Henderson, Tiff Needell and Adrian Simpson having moved to Fifth Gear— was broadcast in 2002 with coverage of the 2002 Birmingham Motorshow from the NEC.

In 2001 the show was cancelled by BBC bosses in London only to be relaunched in a new one-hour-long, studio-based format made by the BBC in London one year later.

In 2002, Channel 5 launched Fifth Gear, a car show featuring many of the former Top Gear presenters including Tiff Needell, Quentin Willson and Vicki Butler-Henderson. The show was produced by former Top Gear producer, Jon Bentley. While most of the production team moved from the BBC to Five to create Fifth Gear, Jason Barlow was still under contract to the BBC and went on to front the new programme "Wrong Car, Right Car", which ran for two series and 23 episodes. The name change to "Fifth Gear" was required as the BBC would not relinquish the rights to the Top Gear name (the corporation was—and still is—publishing Top Gear magazine).

After the first series of Fifth Gear was completed, the BBC decided to relaunch Top Gear, but in a new studio-based format as opposed to the magazine format used until the cancellation. The idea came from producer Andy Wilman and Jeremy Clarkson, who presented the relaunched show with Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe. James May replaced Jason Dawe from the second series onwards of the current format. The pre-cancellation show is referred to as "Old Top Gear" when mentioned on the new show due to the differences in style.