Evans starts media comeback

Chris Evans stole the show at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, an industry only media conference that runs alongside the final few days of the Edinburgh Festival. The former Big Breakfast host essentially relaunched himself in front of an audience of 600 television executives at the event, saying he had been talking to venture capitalists about buying a stake in a British TV channel. Word is he may be interested in buying the 35% stake in Channel 5 held by the former Express owner Lord Hollick through United Business Media. The stake, with an estimated worth of between £200m and £300m, would give Evans a significant say in the running of the channel. Any moves into media ownership would be Evan’s first dabblings in the business since he fell out with SMG, the media giant with whom he shared ownership of Virgin Radio. Evans used the event to confirm that he was working on three TV projects: a daily chat show for Channel 5 to be hosted by Radio 1’s Chris Moyles; a morning programme, also for Channel 5, which will be hosted by Gaby Roslin and possibly Terry Wogan; and a Saturday night entertainment show called Boys and Girls for Channel 4, which should start early next year.