The New Presenters of Top Gear

[sternrogers01]

Sabine Schmitz, Chris Harris (no, not that one), and David Coulthard will join Chris Evans (no, not that one)
 


www.digitalspy.com/tv/top-gear/news/a778142/chris-evans-top-gear-sidekicks-have-been-announced-and-youll-probably-be-surprised/

[foxy]

Sabine? awesome. I really liked her when she was driving around the Nurbergring that time.

[Eunös ✈]

Thought they were going to bring in British Touring Car racer Jason Plato in as he is good mates with Chris Evans, but obviously not,

Unlike the Clarkson, Hammond, May fanboys out there (I was a fan to but you don't go round punching fellow employees), I will give this a chance.

It might be good it might not, I can't be bothered to pay for Amazon so if it sucks I'm out of options.

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

Eh. I'll give it a go, but I'm not hopeful.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

I'm not really looking forward to it. They've kinda missed the key ingredient of Top Gear which was that the presenters were all best friends so their chemistry and the banter between them was great.

With three presenters who aren't friends I just can't see the show having that aspect which was a key part of it's appeal. If they insisted on Evans as a presenter then they should really have gotten two of his friends to do the show alongside him.

[Eunös ✈]

Dec 24, 2015 22:29:20 GMT -5 Ryback on a Pole! said:

I'm not really looking forward to it. They've kinda missed the key ingredient of Top Gear which was that the presenters were all best friends so their chemistry and the banter between them was great.

With three presenters who aren't friends I just can't see the show having that aspect which was a key part of it's appeal. If they insisted on Evans as a presenter then they should really have gotten two of his friends to do the show alongside him.

Spot on, Clarkson May and Hammond had great chemistry with each other, that's why the show was as successful as it was.

Here you just have 4 people thrown together.

----------------------

Like I said earlier they should have got Jason Plato, He's good friends with Chris Evans, though not sure if he still does Fifth Gear.

Either way.. Who knows?, they may prove us wrong.. But unlikely.

[Sparvid]

Bump for first new episode airing on Sunday.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

So the first episode with the new presenters was... Okay. They've pretty much kept the same format, and Matt LeBlanc is actually pretty decent. Chris Evans is all kinds of loathsome though.

[sternrogers01]

Yeah, I only stuck around for the first twenty minutes so but the first film was interesting enough.

[karl100589]

Well I watched it a couple of hours after everyone else (Indy 500 took priority), and whilst I don't have the extreme dislike for it that a lot of those on social media do I am also the first to admit that there were a number of issues.

Firstly though the positives. Like a lot of people I was very surprised by how well Matt did on his first episode. Yes his presenting style in the studio was very wooden but I think during the VT's he had a wry sense of humour that delivered some of the best laughs of the show, particularly the straight-faced hyperbolic descriptions he gave to the paparazzi before the challenge. Sabine was great in spite of not having that much airtime and I quite liked Rory and Harris on Extra Gear, the side show I feel could be a trump card for the main show in that it offers the producers an opportunity to experiment and try new things that I can imagine being part of the main show soon. I also like how the weakest segment of the old show (SIARPC) has been given the refresh that it has long needed.

Now for the negatives, and in particular Evans. Now I have to admit that I do listen to Chris Evans on Radio 2 and think that he is a fantastic radio broadcaster and deserving of the listener-ship that he has earned since taking over from Terry Wogan, but when it comes to television I feel that his presentation style has a very narrow niche which is awkward when in the wrong surroundings, it happened with the One Show and I feel that it happened here. Whether it was pre-recorded or in the studio it felt as if he was trying to hard to play his wacky zany persona whilst also attempting to ape Clarkson's presenting style, with neither ever feeling overly natural, the only time he seemed OK was during the interviews with Ramsey and Heisenberg, but even then that was ruined by him turning it into a studio vote over who had the better car. On that same subject the audience interaction just didn't work for me, I know this was something Clarkson and co used to do but it was very much in small doses, and not the whooping screeching mess it felt like at times.

As for the segments as I mentioned previously I enjoyed the Hammond-esque Nomad piece, elements of the Dodge piece were decent enough and I felt that the Britain vs America stuff did get better by the second half (John Anderson!) but throughout there was always this spark missing that made the whole thing feel a tad second rate. Whilst I know a lot of this will be down to it being the first series I just know that Clarkson and Co would have made something out of the drive to Blackpool in a way that Chris and Matt weren't able to to.

That being said though a lot of the major flaws of the show are things which I still feel can be tweaked. I think Evans will tone down his persona as the feedback from episode one comes in and I expect the members of the B-team being integrated into the studio segments a bit more. For all the criticisms that people have thrown at the show I remember how terrible Season One of the 2002 Clarkson era was and how they honed that into being such a success. It's going to take a while, even two series, but I'm going to tune in next week keep backing the team to turn it around.

[sternrogers01]

Apparently there's an online BBC THREE spin-off called Extra Gear which some are saying was better

[DiBiase is Good]

I watched it tonight and it was ok. The production quality was as usual, pretty much peerless and the out of the studio footage was well done. The studio stuff however was a bit forced. It's still only the first episode though, so it will take them a while fo find their feet. (If you watch the first series of the 2002 reboot it was pretty much the same thing). The star in the car bit wasn't very good. I'm not a fan of the half-Tarmac/half-dirt trail lap so far.
The viewing figures aren't great. Which goes to prove that the main reason IMO why Top Gear was so popular before was not down to the expensive cars or the various guests, it was down to the chemistry between Clarkson, Hammond and May (although, I stil think the powers that be were right in sacking Clarkson). The BBC are finding this out now and it'll be interesting to see if it keeps its worldwide audience (350 million or so) with the new style. If it doesn't, expect the budget to be reduced drastically.

[Gecko]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36458510

The second episode dropped a third of the viewers, an average of 2.8 million viewers compared to last weeks 4.4, although Evans is claiming with catch-up stuff included it was 9 million last week.

[walterharrow]

Matt LeBlanc is great but I don't like Chris Evans and don't think I ever will

It will never happen, but I wish they would get Idris Elba and have him host with Matt LeBlanc

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

For comparison's sake, the final season with Clarkson, Hammond, and May averaged 6.49 million viewers not including catch-up views, and only once dipped below 6 million. A 2.8 million average is abysmal, no matter how much Chris Evans talks up the importance of catch-up. All it proves is that the core audience has downgraded the show from "must see" to "maybe I'll watch it later", and that's never a good sign.

It's early days, of course, but I think this removes any doubt that the presenters were the draw, not the show itself. A PR nightmare Clarkson may have been, but the man was a draw.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

And the ratings continue to tumble. Episode 3 was down to 2.37 million viewers, the second-lowest number of live viewers since the 2002 relaunch.

And last week's total viewing figures including catch-ups was 4.1 million, the worst consolidated ratings since 2010.

[Gecko]

I completely forgot about it. There's been times in the past when I didn't watch it due to having other stuff to do, but I always remembered it was on and to record it.

[BorneAgain]

Jun 13, 2016 15:53:10 GMT -5 Mighty Attack Tribble said:

And the ratings continue to tumble. Episode 3 was down to 2.37 million viewers, the second-lowest number of live viewers since the 2002 relaunch.

And last week's total viewing figures including catch-ups was 4.1 million, the worst consolidated ratings since 2010.

More like Flop Gear, amirite?

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

I've been enjoying it so far. Leblanc's definitely the star though, other Braden Walker, uh, I mean, Chris Harris and the other bloke haven't been too bad. Pleasantly surprised by Sabine too, considering English isn't her native tongue.

I didn't go in with high expectation of Chris Evans though, and he's probably been the weakest of the bunch. Still, not awful though! Most of the time I can just fall back on ogling nice cars.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Jun 13, 2016 19:14:09 GMT -5 "Gentleman" AJ Powell said:

I've been enjoying it so far. Leblanc's definitely the star though, other Braden Walker, uh, I mean, Chris Harris and the other bloke haven't been too bad. Pleasantly surprised by Sabine too, considering English isn't her native tongue.

I didn't go in with high expectation of Chris Evans though, and he's probably been the weakest of the bunch. Still, not awful though! Most of the time I can just fall back on ogling nice cars.

Leblanc is genuinely likeable and watchable, and the other presenters are solid enough. Evans and his "It's still 1999, right?" presenting style is just terrible.