TALK SAYS TELLY CHIEF Si: I’d be better on Top Gear than Chris
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SIMON Cowell reckons he’d be better than Chris Evans as Top Gear host because he can talk and drive at the same time.
Evans has been slammed for struggling to do pieces to camera while on the road and media mogul Simon says he is ready to step in.
Giggling Cowell, 56, joked: “Chris Evans wouldn’t have been my choice but good luck to them.
“I think you’ve got to have someone who can actually drive a car. That’s really important.
“I would have been amazing.”
The revamped Top Gear has been beset by problems since the BBC sacked Jeremy Clarkson, 55.
Fellow hosts James May, 53, and Richard Hammond, 46, followed Clarkson and signed a deal to make a rival show with Amazon. A source close to the TV judge said: “Simon would have loved to have been the new Top Gear host and would have been brilliant.
“The only issue would have been finding time in his diary but he is considering his own format.”
Simon joined fellow Britain’s Got Talent judges David Walliams, 44, Amanda Holden, 44, and Alesha Dixon, 37, in London on Friday to promote the new series.
In an interview with the Daily Star Sunday he said he had contacted X Factor judge Cheryl FernandezVersini, 32, to make sure she was coping following her marriage split with French restaurateur JeanBernard.
He said: “I texted her to see if she’s OK. She’s fine.” But he was not as kind about former X Factor host Dermot O’Leary, 42, who was axed after eight years.
On Wednesday’s National Television Awards Dermot, 42, claimed BBC rival Strictly Come Dancing was his “new favourite show”. But Simon said: “I wasn’t watching the show, I didn’t hear. You say these things trying to be a bit funny on the night and then you go off and think ‘I wish I didn’t say that’. That might have been one of those occasions.” It has been rumoured Dermot could even take part in this year’s celeb dance show.
Simon bitched: “He’s got the NTA job which is once a year – that’s a big move.
“He’d be fantastic on Strictly but I couldn’t care less if he goes on it or not.”