Top Gear to have a new presenter

[ItIsGreen]

I've always liked Chris Evans as a broadcaster, and he's very well known for his love of cars. Whether this is the right show for him though... I'm on the fence. With this many presenters it's clearly going to be a big shake-up from the previous incarnation of Top Gear, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not familiar with Chris Harris or Rory Reid, Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Jordan just seem like odd (stunt?) signings and probably won't last more than one or two seasons, I've been a fan of Sabine since she did the two segments at the Nurburgring on TG, in the latter of which she drove a Ford Transit round in a shade over 10 minutes and I believe she's been hosting a German car show for a while now. I'm prepared to give the new show a chance.

That's an odd lineup. It seems a bit... many. At this point, the show's going to look a bit more like Fifth Gear with a number of hosts, which was TG's main competitor while the new Amazon show would be more like the Top Gear we know.

Which would be an interesting turn of events since Fifth Gear came about by a rival channel snapping up 90% of the presenting team (and using more or less the same format) from when Top Gear got cancelled the first time around. It was more of a 'magazine' format then, no studio, no fixed hosts (though some were more prominent than others and Clarkson came very much to the fore in later years before he quit).

I actually find Clarkson fairly repulsive as a person, but the Clarkson/Hammond/May chemistry works very well and I enjoy watching them dick about. Although some of the later episodes of TG turned the silliness up to 11 and I cringed at some of the forced 'comedy'. Clarkson owns the format used on the rebooted Top Gear from 2002 onwards and I'm expecting the Amazon show to essentially be exactly the same show, with a bigger budget.

No doubt the format gets retooled once or twice after the ratings tank and they have to cattle-prod people into the studio.

I have BBCA, so if this gets broadcast there, I'll watch it a couple times (like I did with TG US), but I don't have any expectations.

Fortunately, my Amazon Prime subscription is warmed up and ready to go.

I actually quite liked American Top Gear, was quite sad to see they don't seem to be making any new episodes. They showed some of them on BBC 3 here in the UK.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I don't know if I would have liked TG US a little more if I hadn't been watching TG UK for so long before. I really wanted to like it.

I just found the American version flat and unfunny. I think it tried to be a little too much like a normal car show but still trying to use the UK format. And like others have said, TG UK is more about the three stooges presenting the show.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Which would be an interesting turn of events since Fifth Gear came about by a rival channel snapping up 90% of the presenting team (and using more or less the same format) from when Top Gear got cancelled the first time around. It was more of a 'magazine' format then, no studio, no fixed hosts (though some were more prominent than others and Clarkson came very much to the fore in later years before he quit).

Yeah, I'm saying it more for the number of hosts versus show format. Fifth Gear is a show that I still thought was fairly interesting, and I found the hosts somewhat more easy to relate to even if the format itself wasn't all that special. I'm seeing a similar type of host dynamic going on here with those choices, though time will tell whether they have good chemistry between them. What I see happening are some of the hosts being dedicated to certain segments, some of which might not be appearing on every show. And if that's the case, it could be a hybrid of the two formats.

 

[TommyR01D]

This is going to be an odd scenario - Clarkson, Hammond and May were the real reason for Top Gear 2002-2015 being so popular, and their Amazon show will almost certainly be the spiritual successor, but the BBC's own-brand concoction will have the timeslot and the foreign broadcast deals.

I guess this will be a bit like David Owen and the rump SDP.

 

[hux]

Cenotaph Stunt

I find it utterly unconvincing that they film at the Cenotaph then apologise for... filming at the cenotaph.

Well that's NuTop Gear's publicity stunt. Over to you Jezza.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find this eerily symbolic?

 

[trynda1701]

I can't believe there has already been a controversy on nu-Top Gear before it even airs!

I hope that the "three presenters in studio, with the rest shown in reports" format is the way they go. Eddie Jordan is a bad choice in my view. I only occasionally caught recent Formula 1 coverage here in the UK, but he just drones on and on, seemingly at random at trackside! I only saw him once do a report for the F1 show, interviewing a high up official for FIA last year, and remember thinking "bloody hell, he's asking pertinent questions!"

Sabina was an automatic choice in my book, she didn't have to accept, of course, but I would have been shocked if she hadn't at least been approached. As others have said, she can drive all right, and has the enthusiasm needed! Matt, well, we'll see, won't we?

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, Sabina is what interests the most about this show. She brings an air of authenticity to it, and already has a connection to Top Gear. Personally, I'd likely make her the main voice of the new Top Gear, sort of the way Jeremy was to the original trio.

If the clip special was anything to go by, well, Matt didn't really bring anything special to the mix. If anything he was rather boring and lacked some personality.

 

[Philip Guyott]

New series trailer:
Over 11,000 likes so far, but also over 43,000 dislikes!

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What do you think?

 

[CorporalClegg]

New series trailer:
Over 11,000 likes so far, but also over 43,000 dislikes!

I think that says it all.

 

[Philip Guyott]

I'll give it a chance.

 

[hux]

I think most people will give it a chance but I also think Top Gear started gaining such a huge audience because they enjoyed watching three genuine friends arsing about. However good this new show is, it won't be genuine friends arsing about, it will be a group of presenters pretending to be genuine friends.

Plus... while Top Gear never really had any serious competition, this new show will constantly be compared to the new Amazon Prime show.

Put it all together and I predict... failure.

We'll see.

 

[Owain Taggart]

It feels so weird without the Trio. I keep expecting them to pop up, but in my heart I know that will never be possible now.

 

[intrinsical]

I'll give it a shot. I hope they'll come up with a new format that's different from the very old Top Gear and different from the Trio's Top Gear. If it's interesting, I'll keep watching. If not, I'll look forward to the Trio's Amazon show.

 

[Hugo Rune]

I like how they have Sabine Schmitz on the line up. She had great banter with the trio on their days around the Nurburgring and appears to be a top end driver.

Will I watch the show? Dave probably.

Hugo - hasn't watched a "live" show in many many years

 

[intrinsical]

How can Top Gear even compete with this? I mean, this video is so much more entertaining than any promo video Top Gear has released thus far.

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[Philip Guyott]

How can Top Gear even compete with this? I mean, this video is so much more entertaining than any promo video Top Gear has released thus far.

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How can they possibly get away with doing a trailer for a new car show and not show any cars?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

They showed 4 beautiful Reliant Robins at the beginning.

 

[hux]

That trailer instantly has me smiling and intrigued. The top gear stuff just has me scratching my head.