When Edd China suddenly decided to leave “Wheeler Dealers” after 13 seasons, you bet something downright nefarious happened between him and his co-host, or him and the producers. The British eccentric mechanic restored cars on a budget in the weekly motoring series, that also starred TV presenter Mike Brewer, and aired on the Discovery Channel back in 2003.
The show was a huge hit, and even had a spin off series, so that many wondered why in the world Edd opted not to return for the 14th season.
Well, it seems that the new producers, Velocity, wanted to make some major changes in the programming content of the show to reduce production expenses, which Edd did not like at all. He said, “Unfortunately, on Velocity’s first attempt at producing the show they found Wheeler Dealers too difficult to make, at least in its current format.”
Edd likes to have detailed coverage on how he fixes a car, thereby gaining more fans as the show is being true to the Do-It-Yourself (DYI) concept, that has been paramount since day one.
He doesn’t like the producers editing what they actually do at the workshop, and felt that it undermined his work as well as his integrity. His last words were, “…so I have come to the conclusion that my only option is to let Velocity get on with it, without me.” It was a straight to the point explanation without the usual drama or scandal associated with the resignation or termination of the main star of the show; it was an acceptable explanation. No bad vibes, right?
The show decided to get another car builder, Ant Anstead, as his replacement. Edd on the other hand seems to be doing great on his own, creating content and posting videos on YouTube with over 19 million total views.
It seemed everyone has moved on from it until Edd heard from Mike that he had received death threats online, and the worst thing is that the internet abuse was not limited to him but to his whole family as well.
Apparently, the fans haven’t moved on yet, and directed their ire to Mike over Edd’s refusal to join the crew for the 14th season. Some fans were thinking that Mike should have rejected the overhauling of the program content. The two may not see eye to eye about the production changes but Edd didn’t find the death threats cool, and urged the fans to just support both their decisions. Edd further addressed this issue by saying, “Is he my favorite person right now? Well, probably not. And I know for sure I’m not his. But that’s okay; we’re both adults and we’ll get over ourselves. We’ll get past this, and we’ll be fine.”
If they are in good terms, why would the fans attack Mike and his family? It seems a little bit odd until you dig up Mike’s previous tweet which says, “Edd left, didn’t say, just abandoned the show and then trashed it after 13 years…who’s the traitor?” It was immediately deleted but internet nerds had already screenshot the tweet. Mike also previously refuted Edd’s claim that Discovery Channel decided to reduce the workshop segment of the show.
He further said during an interview at a car show in Connecticut, “When he did some very bad things, it meant that Discovery channel just couldn’t work with him. So they gave him the option to leave, and he took it.” While it is never a good thing to throw death threats at anyone, at least we now know why some fans were mad about the whole issue.
Edd China took the higher road and kept the feud to a minimal level to probably avoid involving his family to the fallout drama.
Engineer, designer, inventor and now author! How did that happen? I’m very excited to reveal the cover of my #GreaseJunkieBook https://t.co/VGg4DL5cup pic.twitter.com/YI7bQ9tVDy
— Edd China (@TheEddChina) January 28, 2019
He is married to Imogen China, and his father-in-law is one of the known stunt directors in Hollywood. Edd focused on producing motoring content and posting it on YouTube. His pilot episode for his show on YouTube “Edd China’s Garage Revivial”, gained a little over three million views. However, he decided to focus more on writing books, and the hardback edition of his autobiography, “Grease Junkie: A Book of Moving Parts,” was released in August of 2019.
It hit the top of the UK book sales charts, so the paperback edition was later released.
Currently, he is working to break some speed records, as he spoke with people from Guinness Book of World Records to discuss the parameters. He is going to do the same thing he did with his popular Casual Driving Sofa. This wacky inventor graduated with a degree in Engineering and Product Design from London South Bank University, and he would undoubtedly shock the world again by driving his new outrageous motorized furniture along the speedway.
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