But entertaining the 8m listeners to Britain's biggest radio show undoubtedly presents another incredible challenge for the mercurial talent from Warrington.
His mother Minnie's Padgate council house was a stone's throw from the newsagent where the young Chris had worked from 5am each morning selling and delivering papers - long before he was appearing in them.
Opinion: Deanna Delamotta
In Evans, Radio 2 now places its trust in a maverick whose career can be summed up as an incendiary mix of incredible talent tempered by a short attention span.
At 43 he's almost three decades younger than 71-year-old Sir Terry, and nowhere near so dependable, but the BBC clearly think he'll deliver.
Misconduct
Having decided that working as a Tarzan-ogram wasn't for him, Evans cut his broadcasting teeth at Manchester's Piccadilly Radio in the early 1980s, assisting Timmy Mallett and producing James H Reeve before getting his own show. He was sacked for gross misconduct.
From Piccadilly, Evans moved first to BBC London radio station GLR and gained his first taste of national BBC broadcasting with a Saturday afternoon slot on Radio 1 in 1993, before joining Virgin Radio.
His tenure as the launch host for Channel 4's new venture, The Big Breakfast, brought national fame and he capitalised on that big break by launching Ginger Productions, home of Don't Forget Your Toothbrush.
With new found celebrity the Radio 1 breakfast show beckoned again in 1995 and provided Evans with what is probably still his finest - and most controversial - hour. He demonstrated through a series of cheeky demands and elongated benders that he considered himself indispensable. He was sacked in 1997 after consistently failing to turn up to work.
But once again he fell on to his feet as a presenter for - then owner of - Virgin Radio, through his Ginger Media Group. Evans agreed the sale of Ginger Media Group to SMG for £285m in 2002 - trousering an estimated £35.5m himself.
SMG later sacked him from Virgin Radio and when he alleged unfair dismissal, the judge ruled against Evans saying he had 'the temperament of a prima donna.'
The following year he set up a new radio and television production company, UMTV, working with talent including Vernon Kay and Johnny Vegas. He joined Radio 2 permanently in September 2005, taking the helm of a Saturday afternoon show before switching to the drivetime show in March 2006, where he has a loyal following.
He really does have all the luck.
Evans today is man who owns the most expensive Ferrari ever auctioned and pilots his own helicopter.
He recently became a husband and father again, marrying the model and journalist Natasha Shishmanian, who gave birth to their son, Noah Nicolas Martin, in February.
He has a daughter, Jade, now in her 20s, from his former girlfriend Alison Ward. He married Loose Women star Carol McGiffin in 1991, splitting from her in 1994. Most famously, he married the then-teenage pop star Billie Piper in 2001 and remains friends with his former wife.
Gracious
He is gracious about winning Wogan's slot, perhaps demonstrating his new found maturity with a philosophical statement about coming to terms with the news while walking his seven month old son around the garden.
"He was gazing around in wonder at something he'd never seen before, the magnificence that is the deep green of the trees' leaves surrendering to the first tones of a new season under an already golden sky, his first Autumn beginning to take shape," Evans wrote on the BBC website. "All the perspective I needed. Good luck Mr. W. I will do my utmost not to let you and your listeners down."
He continued the respectful nod to his elder when he opened Drivetime yesterday by replaying in its entirety Terry's resignation speech and following it up with The Floral Dance.
"Three cheers for Sir Tel," he said. "Thanks for all the messages of good luck - mostly - for all of us. As for the future, we'll take over in our own way and I promise there will be nothing to fear and probably plenty to cheer."
Maybe it will be a cooler and calmer Chris Evans who'll take Sir Tel's seat, but somehow, I doubt it.
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