Paddy McGuinness and Andrew Flintoff announced as latest Top Gear hosts
Take Me Out host Paddy McGuinness and England cricket legend Andrew Flintoff are to host the new series of Top Gear, the BBC has confirmed.
The pair will replace current presenter Matt LeBlanc, who quit the show earlier this year. His co-hosts Chris Harris and Rory Reid will continue, though Reid will move to the spin-off show Extra Gear.
McGuinness and Flintoff are expected to earn around £500,000 each for their initial two-year contract. They were signed, according to the Sun, after “a secret run-through at a test track near London”.
Both cited their lifelong love of the show. McGuinness said: “To be hosting a show I've watched and loved from being a small boy is beyond exciting.”
Flintoff, who captained the England cricket team in 2006–7, added: “It’s not often you have the chance to do both of your dream jobs, but I'm now lucky enough to say I will have.”
The Sun quoted a BBC source who said that the Top Gear commissioners “think having a British trio – two Lancashire lads and a car buff – is a good move.”
“Paddy’s one-liners and Fred’s sense of adventure should bring back the old days of Top Gear.”
LeBlanc joined in 2016 after former presenter Jeremy Clarkson was sacked for punching a BBC producer.
He and Reid were initially part of an ensemble line-up led by Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans, who quit amid internal tensions and controversy over a stunt involving the Cenotaph in London.
McGuinness and Flintoff will begin filming the 27th series of Top Gear in early 2019, shortly before the final episodes of series 26, featuring LeBlanc, are aired.
