FIFTH GEAR is no more, says Tiff Needell. Or is it?

It looks like the UK’s second favourite car show – Fifth Gear – is no more, as presenter Tiff Needell reveals there are no plans for more shows.

Fifth Gear launched in 2002 on Channel 5 as the channel looked to take up the space left by the cancelling of Top Gear in 2001, and it grabbed former Top Gear presenters Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson and Quentin Wilson to give the new show a familiar face.

But Top Gear returned to the BBC soon after 5th Gear launched, with the new format of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, sealing Fifth Gear’s fate as an also-ran to the world’s favourite car show.

But the Fifth Gear format had legs, and it soldiered on despite the success of Top Gear, although there have been changes in the line-up, changes in format and where it’s broadcast – from Channel Five to Discovery to ITV4.

But now it looks like Fifth Gear has finally bitten the dust, perhaps with producers thinking that with the new Chris Evans Top Gear about to launch, and the Clarkson, Hammond and May show on Amazon – The Grand Tour – not far behind, there’s no profit in continuing with the show.

Tiff Needell – still the headline presenter of Fifth Gear – broke the news on Twitter:

So busy enjoying Mille Miglia forgot to point out @FifthGearTV on @ITV4 on Friday was last one ever recorded. And no news of any more …

— Tiff Needell (@tiff_tv) May 22, 2016

So it’s clear a new series of Fifth Gear hasn’t been commissioned, but there’s doubtless a bit more to Tiff’s Tweet than announcing Fifth Gear is dead and buried.

Tiff’s a wily old fox – he hasn’t presented Top Gear and Fifth Gear for almost 30 years without learning a trick or three –  and he’s no doubt expecting a vocal response to his Tweet, and plenty of media coverage of Fifth Gear’s demise, which might tip things in favour of a new series of Fifth Gear getting commissioned.

Let’s hope he’s right – it’s a good show with great interaction between the team and deserves to survive.