So, I watched the first episode of the new Top Gear last night....

So, I watched the new Top Gear last night... anyone else catch it? The big question: is it as good as old Top Gear? Absolutely not. Mediocre at best, but certainly plenty of room for improvement. My thoughts on the new presenters:

1. Chris Evans- the BBC needs to fire that loud mouthed, excitable moron. I spent the entire episode thinking about punching him in the face. He's not funny, at all. Just annoying. For the life of me, I don't see how he is the lead presenter...

2. Chris Harris- this guy should be the star of the show. He's the most talented guy in the new crew by far, and yet he was relegated to the smallest role, namely a tiny spot on "Extra Gear". WTF? I only gave the new show a chance because I'm a long time Chris Harris fan, and they have him batting on the B-team. Incredibly disappointing.

3. Matt LeBlanc- Not bad at all. Certainly more entertaining than Chris Evans (I really hate that guy). He had a few funny moments and I didn't mind watching him.

4. Sabine Schmidt- she's entertaining as well. Very likable and brought some character to the show, even if she didn't spent much time in the studio.

5. Rory Reid- he doesn't fit in here. Too many "that's cool" and other yes-man associated lines. I understand they're trying to broaden their target audience, but their core audience is full of middle aged car guys that would rather listen to over-the-hill shiny happy people with opinions over young smiling puppets. If this is the direction the BBC is taking the show, I'm not interested.

In a nutshell: promote Chris Harris to actual Top Gear host, keep Matt LeBlanc and Sabine.... send the other 2 packing. Even at their worst Clarkson, May and Hammond were far more entertaining than the new cast. I'll certainly be watching The Grand Tour on Amazon.

Other than that, the format is familiar and I don't know how I feel about that. Anyone else watch new TG? Thoughts?

Sabine was always fun to watch as a guest. I was happy to see they had her in the new mix, hopefully she gets a bigger role going forward. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to watch the show yet.

Cancel the show and save any remaining good reputation leftover after all these terrible remake imitations.

I have never seen a top gear without Clarkson and never will. You can't keep making the Simpson's and just cut out Homer. I will be looking forward to the grand tour!

dj wrote: Cancel the show and save any remaining good reputation leftover after all these terrible remake imitations. I have never seen a top gear without Clarkson and never will. You can't keep making the Simpson's and just cut out Homer. I will be looking forward to the grand tour!

I honestly had little to no interest in new Top Gear until they signed Chris Harris. I've been a big fan of Harris for years on this own Youtube channel, as well as on Drive, Jalopnik, ect. Very talented guy that I've always thought was entertaining. So, I figured I would give new TG a chance.... then I watched it and I don't think Harris received more than 2 minutes of air time in a 2 hour show, and all of it was relegated to the "after show" called Extra Gear. Unreal.

That'll teach me to assume that the BBC was actually going to give a talented, entertaining presenter a real spot in the new show! Disappointing to say the least.

We already have a discussion going here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/just-watched-the-first-episode-of-the-new-bbc-top-gear-spoiler-alert/118554/page1/

Tom_Spangler wrote: We already have a discussion going here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/just-watched-the-first-episode-of-the-new-bbc-top-gear-spoiler-alert/118554/page1/

Oops, didn't check OT! Duly noted.

roninsoldier83 wrote: So, I watched the new Top Gear last night... anyone else catch it? The big question: is it as good as old Top Gear? Absolutely not. Mediocre at best, but certainly plenty of room for improvement. My thoughts on the new presenters: 1. Chris Evans- the BBC needs to fire that loud mouthed, excitable moron. I spent the entire episode thinking about punching him in the face. He's not funny, at all. Just annoying. For the life of me, I don't see how he is the lead presenter... 2. Chris Harris- this guy should be the star of the show. He's the most talented guy in the new crew by far, and yet he was relegated to the smallest role, namely a tiny spot on "Extra Gear". WTF? I only gave the new show a chance because I'm a long time Chris Harris fan, and they have him batting on the B-team. Incredibly disappointing. 3. Matt LeBlanc- Not bad at all. Certainly more entertaining than Chris Evans (I really hate that guy). He had a few funny moments and I didn't mind watching him. 4. Sabine Schmidt- she's entertaining as well. Very likable and brought some character to the show, even if she didn't spent much time in the studio. 5. Rory Reid- he doesn't fit in here. Too many "that's cool" and other yes-man associated lines. I understand they're trying to broaden their target audience, but their core audience is full of middle aged car guys that would rather listen to over-the-hill shiny happy people with opinions over young smiling puppets. If this is the direction the BBC is taking the show, I'm not interested. In a nutshell: promote Chris Harris to actual Top Gear host, keep Matt LeBlanc and Sabine.... send the other 2 packing. Even at their worst Clarkson, May and Hammond were far more entertaining than the new cast. I'll certainly be watching The Grand Tour on Amazon. Other than that, the format is familiar and I don't know how I feel about that. Anyone else watch new TG? Thoughts?

I could not agree with you more. I had the exact same thinking about every presenter last night. Please tell someone here works for bbca?

In the end I think it'll fail like other top gears have because they don't have Hammond may and Clarkson hosting it.

My gf who mildly likes cars loves top gear. My mom who hates cars loves top gear. A friend that can't work on cars and barely ever owns a running car loves watching top gear. This is not because it's a stupendous motoring show, its because Its a great show with great hosts that has cars in it.

Needs to be funny, obviously staged (but passed off as completely factual!), and have that "I wonder what would happen to a vehicle if you did this..."

The only part of the whole show I liked was the USA vs UK Jeep vs Land Rover challenge.

I also like that the SIARPC is now a Rally Cross track. That was something they should have done a while ago.

I've always liked Matt Leblanc, but Chris Evans is out of his gourd. All he does is yell.

Agreed. Get that loud mouthed, Elton John lookalike out of there. Get rid of the rugby announcer for extra gear.

Keep Matt Leblanc, Harris, and the German eye candy/hot shoe.

I'm going to disagree with the gripes against Rory.

Yes, he's a young guy, and he thinks like a young guy, but, I feel he's a good presenter. I also feel he would probably be a better interviewer than likely anyone else on the staff. Harris is a terrific car reviewer, but having watched him for years his interviewing skills are slightly poor and unlikely to improve. At least Rory gives the guest more than .25 second to answer before screaming at them like Evans does.

To me the most out of their element person they have is Evans. I think everyone else will develop into their roles within the first season.

Antihero wrote: In the end I think it'll fail like other top gears have because they don't have Hammond may and Clarkson hosting it.

Being that Top Gear US is in it's 6th season I wouldn't call it a failure. In fact I think it just surpassed TGUK in quality and content now that they ruined it.

The Hoff wrote:

Antihero wrote: In the end I think it'll fail like other top gears have because they don't have Hammond may and Clarkson hosting it.

Being that Top Gear US is in it's 6th season I wouldn't call it a failure. In fact I think it just surpassed TGUK in quality and content now that they ruined it.

There was also an Australian one, it failed fairly fast.

I haven't watched much more than the first 2 seasons of the USA one. I'm glad to hear it's getting better.

My point is that Clarkson may and Hammond made that show, Clarkson did a lot to shape the new version of top gear. Its not just about the cars

I actually kinda like the USA one now that they've done their own thing and its not just a complete copy of the old UK formula.

I did watch the new UK Top Gear and I completely agree, Chris Evans needs to go, as does Rory. Put Matt, Harris and Sabine together and let them gel a little and I think the show will succeed "as different but still entertaining"

I do admit to looking forward to seeing the Clarkson/May/Hammond Amazon show

I saw TG last night, but missed the "after" show.

It wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be---- and I actually liked it better than any of the USTG shows I've seen. I was pleasantly surprised by Matt LeBlanc, as he was darn good---- especially for a first show. I also like the fact that they have someone there to stand up against the constant US bashing.

I also thought the rally-cross for "star in an ordinary car" is brilliant, and could lead to some really interesting laps in the future. I did want to punch Gordon Ramsey through the TV though. Wow that guy is an egomaniac!

Chris Evans is a strange cat.......and one I'd rather not watch. The rest of the show was entertaining enough, and the production values are still amazing. Hopefully they rearrange a few things, send Evans packing and get better instead of worse.

Alright, where do i find this? I checked putlocker to no avail.

Agreed...I hated every moment when Evans was talking(yelling) or doing anything. Plus what's with the old guy wearing skinny jeans? . Harris was legit - knowledgeable, funny, and interesting. LeBlanc is a bit dull in the scripted voice-overs, but I thought he was fun during the impromptu stuff/while driving and appeared to be a pretty decent driver to boot.

Sabine is awesome as always in terms of her driving, but I find her terribly boring to listen to talk. Seems forced.

I thought the skits/challenges were decent overall. I like the star in reasonably priced car doing the rallycross sections, makes it more fun to watch and I'm sure at some point we'll have some interesting screw-ups in the water pit, jump landings, etc that we can all laugh at as well.

Overall, with Evans I give it a D+ grade. If Harris replaced Evans, I'd give it a B+.

The best part is top gear (any version) will never do as well as the YouTube channels. Smoking tire, MCM, etc. these guys are where it's at. I won't be the least bit surprised if MCM goes "on air" soon. Those two need a tv timeslot.

In reply to irish44j:

Sabine is scripted. She doesn't speak good English. Not sure how they plan on working with that.

Trackmouse wrote: In reply to irish44j: Sabine is scripted. She doesn't speak good English. Not sure how they plan on working with that.

She can whisper dirty things in German to me anytime.

In reply to The Hoff:

I agree. She's a milf. She's realistically a 7/10, but her supreme driving skills make her a 9/10.

Realistically I'm a 7/10 and my mediocre driving skills make me a 7.1/10, so she's out of my league.

sesto elemento wrote: Alright, where do i find this? I checked putlocker to no avail.

Um, your favorite BitTorrent site, like where you find other British shows. Obviously aren't a member of a site with a private tracker so you have to go to The Piratebay. Don't worry about getting a nasty gram, like when you download GoT from the bay. The BBC hasn't done anything like that as far as I know.

Phew, it turns out I watched the wrong show. I watched 'Extra Gear' which was a 30 min extra after the show that made non sense at all. Looking forward to watching the real show later. I'll give it a try, remember the first series of the 'old, new' top gear with the fat sensible guy before they brought back James (who had been in the old, old Top gear) It took time for them to gel as a buddy show, this one may need time as well.