Top Gear New Series

[Bob The Skutter]

No worries guys, i'm sure they will be slashing the license fee along with the budgets...

I know you're kidding but...
Well they kinda already did, hence the slashed budgets. The increases used to be linked to inflation, so it's always be an above inflation increase, but at the last charter settlement the government took that away and now they're getting a below inflation increase for 4 years with possibly no increase at all on the 5th year, with increased costs for digital switch over, changing over to HD production etc. it means the BBCs budget is really smaller even with the increase of the licence fee. And now with the government ideas on top slicing the licence fee to pay other PSBs with it seems like it'll be getting worse.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Isn't Top Gear one of the programs that's making money for the BBC?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Isn't Top Gear one of the programs that's making money for the BBC?

Depends on how you look at it, all the stuff on sale is making money for BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, which gets it's budget from the sales of rights from BBC properties, any profits they then make go back in to the BBCs budget. So any show they sell the rights for internationally or on to pay TV makes them money. But I guess Top Gear has more than most with the magazines, dvds, international sales and format rights, plus it's one of BBC Two's highest rated shows.

 

[payndz201]

Unfortunately, all the money that Top Gear makes through BBC Worldwide doesn't go back to Top Gear. If it did, they really would be able to afford to drive a Ferrari on the moon. (Well, maybe not quite, but they'd probably at least be able to punt one into low orbit... or blow it up spectacularly on a moor somewhere.)

The BBC's current biggest earner is, of all things, Strictly Come Dancing, which according to an article I read a few weeks ago accounts for close to half of Worldwide's takings from foreign rights sales - tens of millions of pounds.

 

[Captain Shaw]

Starts tonight at 8pm and have been told if you are recording it you have to set your device for 65 minutes not 60 minutes.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Well, they haven't wasted any time in grabbing the music from the new Trek movie for one of the challenges, have they?!

(And there's some Dark Knight music too, which they've used before)

ETA- Jeremy covered in soot looks like Morgan Freeman...


ETA- well, not so much in the second half. Just in that shot before the "to be continued"

 

[Roger Wilco]

Finally.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Shumacher???

Well, that explains the whole not talking thing then.

I'd have liked it more if he'd taken off his helmet only to show a rubber face of some well-known politician.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

He's just an accomplice. The real Stig has taken to hiding in his usual hiding place, or so I've heard.

 

[WillsBabe]

Schumy? Cute gag. Glad James won a race for a change. Nice to see the boys back.

 

[Captain Shaw]

Nice to see James win for a change.

 

[Hermiod]

They're going to wheel out a different Stig every week, aren't they ?

 

[Roger Wilco]

Did Schumacher pose as The Stig or what? I fucking hate the guy, but doing that would make him a lot more likable to me.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Did Schumacher pose as The Stig or what? I fucking hate the guy, but doing that would make him a lot more likable to me.

Hate the guy? Why? Have you even met him? Is he unsociable, perhaps? Or a jerk? And in what way?

I get so tired of people arbitrarily assigning hate to other people or objects; even though they don't know what the word means.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Meh. He's German, he's arrogant, and he was extremely successul - that's enough for me to not like him.
I'm sure if I ever met him, he would seem like an ok guy, but that's not bloody likely.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Meh. He's German, he's arrogant, and he was extremely successul - that's enough for me to not like him.
I'm sure if I ever met him, he would seem like an ok guy, but that's not bloody likely.

All right, that's fair. But do you want to utterly destroy him and make him suffer for that? If not, then you don't hate him; you simply dislike him, as is anybody's perogative.

Anyway, back on track: I loved the race; though it was a bit slim on jokes this time.

 

[Lonemagpie]

It was a gag, though it does make Schumacher officially *a* Stig- they do occasionally have other experts be the Stig for specific events, as well as having a regular Stig.

AIUI Ferrarri sent him with the FXX, cos they wouldn't let anybody else drive it and he was over for today's GP anyway.

 

[Captain Shaw]

I wonder if the daily fail will make a fuss over the news bit.

 

[Rincewiend]

The White Stig was 'revealed' to be ex-Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher on the 21st of June 2009 on the first episode of the new series of Top Gear. However at the end of the show this was shown to be an elaborate joke. Schumacher was also credited as the Special Guest of the episode, separately to 'The Stig'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_stig

 

[HappyDayRiot]

They're going to wheel out a different Stig every week, aren't they ?

That was the first thing I thought of as soon as he took the helmet off. I don't think it would work though. Maybe 2 or 3 episodes, but not all 7.