My gut says it’s totally cancelled. I’ll say it again. NBC’s US version of Top Gear will not air in 2009. Or ever.
That’s just my opinion, of course, but if one studies the timeline I assembled last May one mo’ time, throws in some new information I just acquired from two inside sources, considers the catastrophe that is Top Gear Australia, includes the fact that Top Gear USA isn’t listed on NBC’s upcoming lineup, and adds something as big as…er…the socio-econo-cultural state of the union, well…decide for yourself.
Let me put it this way. If you were an NBC exec, and if you’d just shot a bunch of pilots for your 2009 schedule, and if most of them were low-cost reality shows and sitcoms…but one of them was a high-cost remake of a British show featuring high-sports cars and various complex (and occasionally dangerous) stunts, and if your US version show hadn’t secured talent equivalent in stature, notoriety or the on-air rapport that audiences universally considered essential to the original’s success, and if the US economy’s decline had placed a dark cloud over any show that glamorized wanton spending and childish behavior…
…would you air it?
Alas, despite everything I’ve heard…I kinda want to see it. Just in case. Of course, it was pretty pathetic to hear about this.
The questions remain:
1) Where is the American Jeremy Clarkson?
2) Why can’t an American network recognize what makes the original Top Gear so great?
3) Can an American network make an automotive-themed TV show anywhere near as good as Top Gear?
It took Clarkson 20 years to build his character.
Anybody else talking like this would be shocking.
Especially now. It also took TG many co-hosts to
put the right Hammond & May in the cocktail.
So they’ve got to do it differently. With a lot
of good writers that should be possible.
NBC also has to remember that TG doubled its
audience in just one season… when they started
to talk less about cars and more about the
adventures/road trips of the Tres Amigos.
I completely agree. We have been tracking this over at http://www.savetopgearusa.com because it was never going to be a success.