I was listening to his recent Podcast for his carcast show and he was saying how BBC is talking with History channel to feature Top Gear on there, as well as auditions for the role of the Stig and general preliminary shooting.
:excited
Interesting news on the Top Gear USA front — Adam Carolla has said that the BBC is working with the History Channel to bring the show to the channel. He revealed this on the latest episode of his CarCast podcast. The Top Gear discussion begins about 12:30 in, but it’s worth listening to the whole podcast if for nothing more than hearing a classic Lamborghini Miura start up.
I can’t stand carolla as a car guy, I don’t think he’d make a good top gear host. However, its awesome that another channel is willing to step up and give the show a shot in the states.
Corolla would be fantastic IMO, Top Gear is mostly character based and how their relationships play out. That’s why Fifth Gear was always bland, and other shows about cars never took off.
As long as the stations need advertising money to operate, shows like Top Gear will not appear on them. Whatever version that will be made and air here, will simply be a highly censored, water down version.
Excerpt from Jay Leno Timesonline UK article, read full article HERE:
…Another problem for Top Gear in America is the biting humour and criticisms of the cars. My great fear in America is that, for instance, if Kia was our sponsor this week, we’d have to say the car was fantastic.
I said on The Tonight Show recently that the new Kia was available with a heated rear window, so if people needed to push it in winter they could keep their hands warm. Boy, the phones did not stop ringing. So imagine what Jeremy would have to put up with.
I don’t think you could be quite as freewheeling with your opinions as you can on the BBC, because sponsors pay for the programmes. Sponsors would be unlikely to embrace any criticism.
Americans don’t really see personalities like Jeremy on commercial television. They know that they have to be somewhat watered down. When Jeremy rips into some sponsor such as Ford or Chrysler, well, that’s the last time they sponsor that show. Then what you have is “the meeting” after the show, where they tell him to tone it down. That’s just not what they do at Top Gear.
You havent listened to the podcast, I suggest you do, he talked about the issue and adressed that fact. He also mention previous cases where shows sponsored by a certain brand have critiqued it without any penalties, the precedent had been set before and it could happen again. Keep in mind advertisers are aware of the age old rule that there is “no such thing as neative publicity” which is arguble but there is logic behind it.
It’s got potential to be good, not as good but good if the chemistry is right.
Tiger finally has a legit excuse to take a break from golf, that’s vacation man! :lol
Publicity from scandal has been used many times to a great success, just look at Paris Hilton. PR people would rather do damage control about somebody who’s famous because of a scandal, then not have a job because the person isn’t famous at all.
Your logic is very flawed. Paris Hilton does not have any success. She’s infamous, not famous. Her ‘money’ is all of her dad’s. Just because someone is in newspapers, magazines, and other shit does not mean it’s good for anyone.
I used Tiger Woods as he is literally a perfect example. There was nothing good to come out of it, and he lost millions upon millions because of his scandal. Nike stock dropped a ton, so even just their shareholders were losing because of it.
PR is all about damage control and maintaining someone’s image.
I’d rather have no one remember my name, then everyone remember it for something bad I did. I’m sure there’s many more people with that logic as well.
I’ve caught that which definitely goes along with what Leno said, but I’ve also seen many cars provided to the manufacturer get ripped on during the show, called silly, ugly or nearly useless.
Also don’t forget that Leno routinely rips on NBC shows while on the air, Top Gear on Discovery was sponsored by commercials while Clarkson and the crew rip apart American manufacturers in their typical manner, some manufacturers do get mad at BBC Top Gear but they find their way around that and in the end manufacturers do everything they can to make sure their car looks good on the show, otherwise by “not allowing” their car to appear at all they will only get more negative publicity from the presenters.
You are right to an extent. Hyundia was willing to ship their entire inventory to top get to get torn apart… show it in HD and on a track its like a free commercial even if the hosts hate it.
However, they didn’t actually sponsor the show. Giving a Channel money to advertise the car on the show and then to have the presenters going on toting the competitor and trashing the sponsor simply doesn’t work in america. This is evident in motor-trend, test drive, car and driver, etc.
On top of the money issues that I would expect I think Corolla is the wrong person to host the show. You really need someone with a more over the top abrasive attitude to really add the comedy to the show. Corolla tries, but he really just has the personality of stale toast. The co-hosts are no better. Tanner Faust I think might be slightly retarded and the other guy wouldn’t have been found if he was dead for the last 4 months. Maybe he did, he drives a toyota, he could be in a ditch with the wheels still spinning.
I really want to see someone who doesn’t give a fuck about anybody or anything -except for fast cars. Some one who has a definitive taste in classy vehicles (not a prius driver), and then someone who actually has practical knowledge about driving a car who could do laps around the other two.
I’m personally a big fan of Titus, Sienfield is more of a talk guy than an “action hero” so he’d be out from a good cast and Leno is just too big for his own good.
if USF1 couldn’t find an american racing driver I’m not going to bother trying to find a legitimate one with the personality that’s required. I’m sure there is one out there (because again, USF1 couldn’t find one :lol) but I don’t know him.
If if you have someone that isn’t born and raised American, that might be a good thing, the show needs more perspective. Driving in the States is not the same thing as being a driver in any other country. we have more drivers/population accident/drivers than anyone else and its due to the American mentality that driving is a natural right. In the UK you still have to take your licensing test in a manual transmission vehicle. In germany the test is nearly an hour long. In the US you have to make a stop, left turn, and right turn and your in the “lets drive my SUV in the left lane at the speed limit while talking on my cell phone” club.
Good points, some contrast against the Euro wold of cars would be a fresh breeze to the American audience.
Some of the worst things that TGUS could do is try to hard to mimic the original cast and show. It should carry over the basics but then evolve from then on.
The biggest criticism of original TG is that it’s no longer “original” it seems too staged. The cast has lost it’s innocence after the years and now struggle to appeal to the cartoonish characters they have created.
oh and here is a little tid bit I’ve found on Final Gear, don’t know the validity of the source but sound legit
TopGearUSA
My Fellow Viewers…
a. Please note that TopGear UK is shown in the US on BBC America which IS commercialy supported and from what I can see the shows are not much edited to “tame” them down. The bit torrent crowd will know if stuff other than news and cool wall are excised.
b. The unfettered criticism is largely an illusion. All too many critiques and comparisons begin with some withering comments by Jeremy and end with “we love it anyhow.” This has been a real pattern lately. For the 3 car comparisons, the all too predictable, conclusion is generally “we love the Audi for this, the BMW for that and the Mercedes for something else.” TG really only slams easy targets like Proton and I’m sure they’ll have a lot of fun with the Nano. They even seem to have softened their disdain for all things American now that they are courting US revenue.
I love the show, but see it as automotive based entertainment as does the BBC. For an unflinching critique of all things automotive we viewers will have to look elsewhere. I suspect this is why Dan Neil was bounced from the NBC version.
