Paddy McGuinness show with huge ratings axed after just one series

Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris were back behind the wheel last year for a new show together - months after the latest version of Top Gear was axed in late 2023.

But now their new show Paddy and Chris: Road Tripping is said to have suffered the same fate after the BBC reportedly haven't renewed it after just one series, despite huge ratings from fans.

The road trip show saw them travel around Europe on a quest to crack the code of ageing well (or not so disgracefully) as the pair - who both in their early 50s - searched for a cure to the 'mid-life crisis'.

Though it had good viewing figures - with 3.2 million tuning it for the first episode on Sunday September 24, 2024 - it's not thought to be coming back for a second season.

A BBC spokesperson confirmed the news and said in a statement to The Sun: "Whilst viewers can enjoy all episodes of Road Tripping on BBC iPlayer now, there are currently no plans for any new episodes at the moment."

It comes after a TV insider told the publication that "it certainly wouldn't have helped" that a few weeks before the show began, host Chris was "slating the corporation following Freddie Flintoff’s horror crash while they were filming Top Gear."

They added: "He said he'd warned show bosses that someone could be killed or seriously injured on the show claiming producers were devising increasingly 'stupid and dangerous' stunts. The timing was not great, but by that stage Road Tripping, which saw Chris reunited with Paddy without Freddie, had already been made and was ready to go out on air."

Freddie was out of the spotlight for a while after his horror Top Gear horror in December 2022 which left him with life-changing and long-lasting injuries. The former England cricket star had a mixture of hard and soft tissue injuries, broken teeth, lost teeth and elements of the upper jaw bone that were also fractured and displaced.

Surgeon Jahrad Haq, who treated Freddie, told a Disney+ documentary about what happened: “He lost a really significant portion of his upper lip - the skin and some of the underlying muscle - and also his lower lip.” Mr Haq added the injuries were in the "top five" in terms of severity of those he had seen during his career.

The crash at Dunsfold Park in Surrey was in a Morgan Super 3 car with no roof which flipped. Recalling the moment, Freddie said: "It were a three wheeler, a reinforcement windscreen and a bar covering half me back. So I'm exposed.

“We're probably doing about 40 or 45, they were showing me how to get the car going sideways, and the wheel came up at the front. It's a funny thing rolling a car because there's a point of no return, and everything slows down. It's so weird.”

Landing face first, Freddie feared his face had been ripped off in the accident. He continued: "I looked down and blood was coming down. And my biggest fear was I didn’t think I had a face. I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death.”

Dad-of-four Freddie has scars on his face, but has since recovered from the accident. He recently went back to visit the hotel in London where he had facial surgery to thank his 'superheroes'.

Upon Freddie's return to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, he said: "I just want to say a massive thank you to all the staff at St George's. I came here probably the lowest I've ever been, in need of help and the expertise, the love, the compassion they showed me was incredible." He added: "I'll be eternally grateful - absolute superheroes."

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