There’s a Battle Royale brewing in the automotive tv show world. It’s between BBC’s reimagined Top Gear (now with more foreigners!), and whatever concoction that show’s original cast members are dreaming up over on Amazon Prime. It appears that the new iteration of Top Gear got custody of the Stig. It also appears that they seem intent on making up for a lack of familiarity and chemistry with sheer numbers, doubling the speaking roles from the previous edition. The Clarkson, May and Hammond show on the other hand, seems content to make due with just the three buffoons around whom we are all comfortable. That is, as long as one of them doesn’t get angry.
There’s been some anger on the Top Gear side too, even though the show’s debut is still a while off. The central cog in the new Top Gear machine is British man in fashionable glasses Chris Evans, who it has been reported has taken issue with the inclusion in the cast of American former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc. For his part, LeBlanc has been making fun of how Evans pronounces “taco.”
Over on Amazon, well, they haven’t even come up with a name for their show yet, and it will follow the new Top Gear’s debut by several months. Eventually however, there will be only one survivor. Just like Beta vs VHS, or the McRib vs the McHot Dog, when the dust settles only one show will stand tall before the man. The other? It will either descend into obscurity or will turn into Top Gear America. Looking ahead, which one do you think will be the survivor?
Images: Top- The Guardian / Bottom- Top Gear
Hooniverse Asks: Who Will Win the Top Gear Fight- New Top Gear or the Clarkson/May/Hammond Show?
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I suspect Hammond/May/Clarkson will do better because all they have to do is the same sort of parking about they always used to do. It’s a formula that a little tired, but it works, and it won’t take much to keep the fan base happy.
I see no reason new Top Gear couldn’t be good after getting through about a season’s worth of teething problems, but we’ll see if the public is willing to hold out for it to succeed on its own terms. -
It’ll end up as two totally different products. More like comparing an oven and a photocopier than VHS vs Betamax.
(P.S. Video2000 was the format that should have won)-
Well, they accomplish sort of the same thing…ish — appeasing automotive aficionados. So, I’d say it’s more like comparing an oven to a microwave. Both heat food, but one is tried and true and reliably delivers while the other is (relatively) new and goes about the heating in a way that doesn’t always deliver good results.
Also, Betamax didn’t lose, it just went pro while VHS stayed in the minors. -
I agree. It’s like saying that either Road & Track or Car & Driver has to die. Can’t they co-exist as easily as Top Gear and Fifth Gear did for over a decade? If either one lives or dies, it will be on its own merit (or lack thereof).
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“Mays”? Really?
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Some say he’s changed it so that people will stop insisting that he’s the long-lost brother of Brian May.
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“Some say Clarkson’s Ludicrous statements about Heir Schtigness will be missed…”
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I wouldn’t be surprised if they came up with a slightly modified version of the The Stig character. Maybe The Stag, always showing up single, in a Triumph?
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Oh..
I love me a V8 Stag….
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Why? Why must one lose? One (or both) might fail spectacularly, but with Amazon and Netflix, they aren’t competing for eyeballs. Viewers are not constrained to an air time. If you have both streaming services, you can watch both shows. If you don’t have either, you can probably still find a way to watch both shows, I won’t tell.
I have my fears about the new Top Gear, just because with all of the “news” leading up to the premier, Chris Evans seems like a twat. Whether he really is, or if it is an act to manufacture drama makes very little difference to me. That is a dynamic that I don’t find entertaining. Sabine and Harris might be enough to offset that though. They are both a lot of fun to watch. -
New TopGear will do well at first, then fade. I don’t think the personality mix will work. Clarkson made the show less about cars and more about the triumverate….and that is what made the show fun. Best Evans can do is imitate, and that seldom works long term. Whose songs are played most…Beetles or Monkees…or Zombies?
The “As yet unnamed motoring show on Amazon” will likely work for a few years, at which point the world may begin suffering from Clarkson fatigue. His humor is already well understood and quite predictable. Humor needs the element of surprise to work.-
I am not sure they’ll be mixing the personalities as much as The Three mixed. I picture an altered format wherein they all shoot their segments mostly separate, then only a portion of them shoot the studio scenes. Perhaps Evans, who can’t hold his cookies riding shotgun in a racecar will be the in-studio main man, with various others rotating in and out? I dunno — but I’m eager to find out.
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I actually like the Monkees more than the Beatles (I don’t like the Beatles one bit), but that’s mostly because as a kid I used to listen to them while building my cardboard space ships.
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Clarkson/Hammond/May will win… as that will be the format pron will side to.
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That’s a lot of presenters jumping the shark at once.
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That’s a sensible answer. I’m just in awe about how the ibternet keeps glowing about a show that is no more, but will, or might, or whatever. So much has been written about Top Gear since…The Incident…that I am just incredibly bored. Not even the tiniest bit excited to see the new stuff anymore.
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I was bored with Top Gear for a while before Clarkson got canned. Even Hammond, whom I’d always found the most watchable of the three, seemed to be suffering from degenerative shtick decay.
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Given the frequently silly and petty bad buzz surrounding Top Gear III: The Search for Spock, I am getting the impression someone out there really wants it to fail. But I have no horse in this race, so long as they’re good I want everyone to win.
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Not an answer, but the Neue TG crew looks like the Beeb was looking at their presenter staff and thought, “Crap. Too white. Too much testosterone.”
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Given the current, old-and-busted condition of The Three, I suspect the new crew will significantly boost the overall testosterone level.
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This is true. Well, and they still have The Stig.
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The survivor will be the funny one that informs you about cars both exotic and mundane. The one with something fresh to offer, rather than dead-horse-beating running gags. Whichever keeps the familiar we like, and ditches the familiar we don’t.
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Make do.
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The more shows about cars, the better. The irreverence and humor of the former Top Gear trio will probably translate very well to a show where I’m sure they’ll have more freedom to do what they want. I’m a big fan of Sabine, she’s a natural when it comes to cars and TV. I hope she gets enough air time to make me happy.
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I’ll watch both just to see, but HMC will definitely take the cake. Amazon has plenty of money to toss at their shows, at least based on the reports being given, and I think HMC will reflect that, even though they don’t have a name yet.
New TG will be fine, but I feel as though the BBC threw too many hosts at the show to try to vary the formula. All it will do is muddy the show and make the segments more complicated and less cohesive.-
HMC = Hooniverse Motor Channel? Yes, I’m sure that’ll do great. 😉
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