As you've probably heard, the British television program "Top Gear" was shut down mid-season earlier this year. This was because Jeremy Clarkson (former Top Gear presenter), had a "fracas" with one of the producers. This wasn't just an agressive push, it was a full on punch in the face. This happend after the three presenters (Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond) just got off a long flight and they were very drunk. Jeremy then allegedly landed a punch on one of the producers because there was no food when they arrived.
Many thought that this was just a minor bump in the road, since the series was only suspended for a couple of weeks, until they cancelled the whole show mid-season. Now, many thought that this was the end, maybe they'd do one or two of their "Clarkson, Hammond and May Live" shows and it was over. No, although they did their live shows, they were not so long ago bought by Amazon for £300 million! That's alot of money for three middle-aged men who long on about cars. Netflix and Amazon were the potential buyers, but Netflix pulled out of the deal because they said the group wasn't worth, so they were probably sold for a bit more than their worth.
Now then, it's just to wait and see if the new show will be any good. The show was rumored to be called "Gear Knobs", according to Jeremy Clarkson's Twitter, it is no longer the case. I really dont care what they name it, what matters is that we get the best car show in the world back on it's feet again.
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| Picture from Jeremy Clarkson's Twitter. The recording has already started and will most likely air on Amazon Prime in 2016, we can already see that they brought in the three hybrid cars Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche 918 and McLaren P1. They struggled to have all of these cars at the track on the same time on Top Gear, so to see all of them so early is very good. |
You have to love these guys or hate them I suppose. Personally, as human beings, I can't stand them. I should imagine that anyone addicted to cars will love following their program. The question is: what is it about the program that has given them such a following? there are a lot of other 'motoring' programs that haven't had the same success.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, love these guys and as you said, the car community absolutely adores them. It's not just the cars that made them famous, it's the way they present it. It's not much facts going on there, just three english blokes mucking about. My friend, who doensn't really care about cars, love the hell out of these guys and watch every episode.
DeleteBeing the biggest factual program in the world, other motoring programs have quite a reach to get to the level of Top Gear. Shows like 'Fifth Gear' is kind of the same thing but not as good, it's more of a factual program. Top Gear USA didn't really stand out, because you just can't compare them to the legendary Top Gear, you just can't replace them.