motor

HeilSvenska · 01-15-2008, 01:58 PM

This is terrible.

NBC has pedal to the metal with "Top Gear" remake
By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The popular BBC car show "Top Gear" is revving up a U.S. edition.

NBC has ordered a pilot for "Gear," which will be announced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit (January 19-27). Casting is under way for hosts. As with the BBC version, it will offer a mix of cars, humor and celebrities.

The pilot will be filmed at a secret location around Los Angeles equipped with a race track and hangar where the show will be filmed in front of a audience.

NBC reality chief Craig Plestis said the network already is getting numerous inquiries from car companies that had heard rumblings about a U.S. remake.

"This is a favorite of all automobile companies as it shows their cars in such a great light," he said.

"Top Gear," which airs on BBC 2, originally launched in 1977 but has gained wider popularity since its relaunch in 2002.

Among "Gear's" popular segments that will be replicated in the U.S. are races where the hosts have to reach a destination using different modes of transportation, road tests, challenges like converting and refurbishing existing cars into anything from a stretch limo to an amphibian and celebrities racing a midsize car. ("American Idol's" Simon Cowell holds the record for fastest lap time with a Chevrolet Lacetti.)

The U.K. show is hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May and also features the Stig, a masked test driver. The U.S. version also will feature a quartet of presenters, including a secret test driver.

The BBC originally mulled doing an American version with the original British hosts, but the idea fell through in the summer, mostly over Clarkson's unwillingness to spend extended periods of time away from his family as well as the show's growing ratings success in Britain.

In September 2006, Hammond was seriously injured while taping a test run with a jet-propelled drag-racing car. The episode featuring footage of the crash opened the show's highest-rated season to date, with the season finale drawing BBC 2's biggest ratings in a decade.

Australian multicultural broadcaster SBS recently bought the rights to produce a local version of "Top Gear."

In addition to the show, the British "Gear" franchise includes a popular companion car-themed Web site as well as Top Gear magazine.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

ferrari550 · 01-15-2008, 02:25 PM

It is bad news, they will ruin the show. But for some reason i can see Jay Leno being the main presenter. He has a love and passion for cars and is leaving the tonight show this year.

xbeakerx · 01-15-2008, 02:35 PM

that would be good choice....

gangajas · 01-15-2008, 03:41 PM

They were also going to make a version of another great British TV show, The IT Crowd, but it's been cancelled. So who knows what is going to happen with this.

Plague · 01-15-2008, 04:33 PM

What can they ruin? UK TG will stay the same and we will be watching it like before, won't we?

unwilling · 01-15-2008, 06:17 PM

I have faith. the British TG won't, I imagine, be sullied by the US TG. I'm interested to see how it turns out.

styla21 · 01-15-2008, 06:18 PM

Australia already attempted at loosely "copying" the TG format. And it sucked. I hope the American's don't learn this same lesson the hard way. I was actually embarrassed for the presenters; watching them attempt to mimic the British presenters. Doing that puts you almost at the bottom of the journalistic-barrell IMO.

m0ng0l01dz · 01-16-2008, 03:09 AM

Top Gear only works because we love the presenters. We'll watch anything with one of them in it. Okay fine the cars have a lot to do with it as well, as an American I don't really need to see whats hot from Dodge, I'm interested in seeing what I wouldn't get to see otherwise, and hear JC say something outlandish, and watch as Hamsters mind deteriorates, and listen to Cap'n Slow mutter obscure checklists off before he starts a car. Jay Leno? is he willing to put his Stanley Steamer into a four wheel drift?

rkplover · 01-16-2008, 05:04 AM

Copy is always a copy and in this case it will most likely be a bad copy.

xbeakerx · 01-16-2008, 06:17 PM

i'm not really supporting it but they did it with xfactor(american idol) and look at that but then again thats a whole another ballgame.

styla21 · 01-16-2008, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by xbeakerx

i'm not really supporting it but they did it with xfactor(american idol) and look at that but then again thats a whole another ballgame.

X factor's content is more the contestants, not the presenters.
As much as the cars are a significant feature of Top Gear, it's the story built around them to create a segment, and the presenters themselves that make the show. Without this... it would be, well, fifth gear?

xbeakerx · 01-17-2008, 01:34 AM

yeah i watched a couple of the 5th gear episodes and wasnt impressed. i do like tiff but thats no reason to watch the program.

they will probably get some shitty nascrap driver to be the stig.

volkoff · 01-17-2008, 09:17 AM

^
And will be talking about how great and economical american cars are.

xbeakerx · 01-17-2008, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by volkoff

^
And will be talking about how great and economical american cars are.

actually it will be a comical Motorweek. BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRING!

GunnyD · 01-17-2008, 09:43 AM

It will be a total disaster, Top Gear just won't be Top Gear, without JC, The Hamster, and Captain Slow. It will end up like Motorweek on PBS. Hopefully it will go by the wayside like Viva' Laughlin, and Anchorwoman. 1 episode and then canceled. Even though I am an American I have to agree with the guys on TG that we just can't make a proper car. Hell, I have a Monte Carlo with a 3.4 liter engine that boasts a huge 170bhp and 17mpg. Whoopee, Jeremy got the Audi A8 TDI to get 40 mpg and run 800 miles all that with a 326bhp 4.2 liter engine and twin turbos. 99% of American cars are rubbish. As I fear the American version will be.