Jason season 1 (Sorry this is a re-post, new member)

dawkin182

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Just wondering why they dumped him.

Apart from the fact he was as boring as hell.

I have heard it's because they dumped the used car segments, but James continued this in season 2.

And on another note, how much has James improved since season 2. (May well be however, how much has the scripting improved.)
 
Apparently he was caught drunk driving or something, along with his general tedium that he brought to the show.
 
I would think the drunk driving made a bigger impact...
 
Some say that he would have been a ringer in Cheap Car Challenges, and that all his pudge is actually old copies of Auto Trader...
 
He was appaling, so good thing they got rid of him.
And what a replacement they got, they couldnt have done better.
 
They used him for ballast when they sunk Black Stig in the Jaguar
 
Not suited to the way the show was going - to be fair Jason is on other car shows and does well when he sticks to the facts. I quite like him actually, but he was not right for the show; Captain Slow is more than perfect.
 
Just wondering why they dumped him.

I have heard it's because they dumped the used car segments, but James continued this in season 2.

No that isn't why.


When Jeremy and Andy Wilman got approval to relaunch TopGear they wanted Jeremy, James and a woman to be the hosts. James knocked them back because he didn't believe that they would be allowed to be honest about the cars. They cast Jason in his place. The agent for the woman that Clarkson and Wilman wanted would only agree to send her along for an audition if they also let another client of his come too. The other client was Richard Hammond.

At the end of the first series, James had seen how free the presenters were to be themselves on the show and decided that he wanted in. So Jason got the boot.
 
No that isn't why.


When Jeremy and Andy Wilman got approval to relaunch TopGear they wanted Jeremy, James and a woman to be the hosts. James knocked them back because he didn't believe that they would be allowed to be honest about the cars. They cast Jason in his place. The agent for the woman that Clarkson and Wilman wanted would only agree to send her along for an audition if they also let another client of his come too. The other client was Richard Hammond.

At the end of the first series, James had seen how free the presenters were to be themselves on the show and decided that he wanted in. So Jason got the boot.

That's pretty much how I heard it too. They had James lined up from the off but he had reservations (I seem to recall he was also unsure of the new proposed format and whether it would work) and it was only after the first series he realised it was something he wanted to be involved with and signed up.

Also I think you will find it was Brendan Coogan (Steve's brother) who was done for drink driving. I don't recall any stories about Jason being done for that but I am sure someone will post a relevant link if he was.
 
As far as I remember, Jason only had one good scene in the whole first season and that is when he raced the Gee Whiz. That was actually funny.

The rest of the time he slowed down the show with his mumbled palavers (which are hardly intelligible for folks like me, who haven't got English as a mother language) and more than once I had the feeling, that Jeremy and Richard were actually bored and/or annoyed by him.

The way he forcefully hugged those grannies in one episode (while the grannies clearly had to force themselves to a smile and were close to wrenching away from him), was appalling, too.

Jason may be a nice guy but he is a used car salesman and that type of character simply doesn't fit into Top Gear, not to mention that his physical shape would have prevented many of the challenges, specials and races, which followed in the years to come.

The Top Gear producers (and probably also Jeremy and Richard) realized very fast, that Jason does not fit into the concept. In my opinion you can feel it from the 3rd or 4th episode on, that Jason develops more and more into a foreign object, despite of the continuing attempts to make him fit in.
 
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In all fairness, I did like his segment where he took 3 or 4 supercars to a school-yard to see which one the kids like the best. Thought it was a cool idea.
 
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