One Direction Offered Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘Top Gear’ Job
From the archive: published Dec 12, 2015, 10 years ago. Details may have changed since.
One Direction is currently one of the hottest British music groups in the world. Comprised of Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and Harry Styles, the group rose to fame after finishing third in X Factor’s seventh series in 2010. One of the main catalysts of the group’s success was social media, which immensely boosted their hit singles, “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Story of My Life,” and “Live While We’re Young.”
Going a bit into the group’s recent controversies, its members and Justin Bieber have had a growing rivalry. It all started last year after Selena Gomez, who had just got out of a relationship with Justin Bieber started dating Niall Horan — one of the group’s members in February. Soon, they began taking swipes at Justin Bieber on social media.
This escalated into a Justin Bieber vs. One Direction fan fight. In November this year, both sides released their albums at almost the same time. Both were well-received, but Justin Bieber’s topped the first week’s sales, selling approximately 522,000 copies and One Direction, a sizeable 402,000 within that time. Creative marketing and a partnership with Lyft to boost sales were said to be the main factors influencing the huge numbers boasted by Justin’s album.
Presently, One Direction’s fan base has been observed to be growing, with the demographics ranging far beyond teenage girls. According to the Daily Mail, the group has a formidable fan-base among ladies aged over 50. A surprising 46 percent of its audience said to be over 35. All of this is despite members being aged between 19 and 21.
And for that reason, One Direction would be that almost perfect, but intriguing, ingredient needed to successfully fill in Jeremy Clarkson’s shoes at Top Gear. Albeit their lack of in-depth motoring knowledge, panache, and sway among motoring enthusiasts as Jeremy Clarkson, they do have a sizeable female followership.
This may have been the stream of thought Chris Evans, who replaced Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear, was on when he jokingly asked the group to join him on Top Gear. Chris posed the offer just after they had finished performing, asking what they would be doing in their spare time while on their extended break. The following was his statement.
“It sounds like you’re taking some time out just as you’ve started to really enjoy performing. Why don’t you announce here and now that you’re going to postpone your split? If you insist on having a break there is one spare place on Top Gear.”
This is as reported by the Mirror. Chris then asked the guys to name their favorite cars, as a competition for the coveted Top Gear position. Louis and Harry went with Aston Martin, Liam the Lamborghini, and Niall the Ford Fiesta. Fearne Cotton, Chris Evan’s co-host, chose the Jaguar E-Type at which point he concluded she was the winner. He then ushered the group off the stage saying, “She gets the job, sorry guys. Off you get.”
Top Gear is set to commence in May, 2016, with its main host being Chris Evans. Meanwhile, Jeremy Clarkson, who was the Top Gear godfather, is currently working on a motoring show for Amazon Prime, together with his co-stars, Richard Hammond and James May.
JeremyClarkson Nov 27
Can I just be clear. The reliant robins are our company runabouts. The cars on the show will mostly have more wheels.
?@JeremyClarkson Oct 7
With a skeleton crew, filming for Amazon Prime’s new motoring programme has begun.
?@JeremyClarkson Nov 30
Everything going very well on our first big shoot. Except two of us can’t get to the location. And the one that can is broken.