We can’t get excited about or honestly recommend any of the rubbish spewed forth by the WGA strike-hurting networks in place of actual scripted programs. At this point, we would like to never see the Endemol logo on air again. (Apparently Endemol is Dutch for “mindless garbage television.”) So we were a bit surprised when we heard that NBC actually was importing a version of one of our favorite British programs, Top Gear.
Top Gear, in theory, is a show about cars, complete with reviews of new models and automotive news. In practice, it has high production-value car reviews, stars taking a timed lap around the test track, and a mysterious unknown driver known as the Stig. There are also three hosts who go off and do insane things like drive to France in homemade amphibious cars or drive to the North Pole, all while über host Jeremy Clarkson makes fun of everything from environmentalists to safety to his co-hosts. In short, Clarkson is about 99% of the reason the show is very popular in the UK and gets huge ratings on BBC 2. It will be back on BBC America with new episodes on February 25th.
We fear the NBC version of the show is going to be a disaster like NBC’s version of Coupling was, especially since they are not importing the hosts who make show work. What's a crazy Brits-doing-crazy-things without the crazy Brits doing crazy things?
Then again, the NBC version of the Office worked and Top Gear is better than another imported fakeality show, some F-list "celebrity" version of a tired hackneyed reality show, or Simon Cowell (who incidentally has the fastest celebrity lap time on Top Gear) disparaging people. It shows some slightly out-of-the-box thinking for NBC. We’ll see if it is any good on March 4th.
BBC photo of British Top Gear presenters, Richard Hammond, James May, Jeremy Clarkson
