"Top Gear" has a new host.
BBC announced Tuesday that TV and radio personality Chris Evans (not the actor who plays "Captain America") will be the new host of the long-running U.K. automotive show.
Evans will replace Jeremy Clarkson, who was fired in March after punching show producer Oisin Tymon.
"I'm thrilled," Evans said about his new gig. " 'Top Gear' is my favorite program of all time, created by a host of brilliant minds who love cars and understand how to make the massively complicated come across as fun, devil-may-care and effortless. Of course it's anything but and that's the genius of 'Top Gear's' global success. I promise I will do everything I possibly can to respect what has gone on before and take the show forward."
Evans, host for BBC Radio 2's "Chris Evans Breakfast Show," also expressed his excitement via Twitter, writing, "First tweet as new Top Gear host. I would like to say Jeremy, Richard & James are the greatest. And NO I'm not leaving the R2 Breakfast Show."
"I am so delighted that Chris will be presenting the next series of Top Gear," BBC exec Kim Shillinglaw said in a statement Tuesday. "His knowledge of and passion for cars are well-known and combined with his sheer inventiveness and cheeky unpredictability, he is the perfect choice to take our much-loved show into the future. Chris is a huge fan of Top Gear and has great respect for the craft and work ethic of one of the best production teams in the world. He knows the phenomenal attention to detail it takes to make a single sequence of Top Gear, let alone a whole series. He is already full of brilliant ideas and I can't wait for him to get started."
BBC said that Evans has signed a three-year deal to host the popular television program; however Clarkson's former co-presenters, James May and Richard Hammond, have been confirmed to not be returning to the series.
"Top Gear" is expected to begin production within the next few weeks.
