New Top Gear UK

[themadscientist]

Next episode of the Science of Stupid will critique a cell phone video of Clarkson flipping out over his sandwich and costing him and his friends a lot of money.

[themadscientist]

I guess Chris can't handle criticism.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/top-gear/65...r-ratings-drop

Following months of negative newspaper coverage followed by falling ratings for his new-look Top Gear, Chris Evans has been photographed sitting alone in the street drinking wine.

"The 50-year-old was pictured necking a glass of wine as he sat slumped against a wall near his London home," reports the Daily Mail, which has been responsible for some of the most hostile articles about the presenter's takeover of the show.


Apparently oblivious to the fact he was being photographed, Evans "took a call on his mobile phone before parking himself against the crumbling white wall of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse just feet from overflowing rubbish bins."

Ouch!

The first episode of Top Gear achieved an average audience of 4.3 million viewers, just shy of Evans's ambition for the show, but the second episode saw its audience decline massively, with 2.8 million watching.

[fumanchu1]

Originally Posted by themadscientist

I guess Chris can't handle criticism.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/top-gear/65...r-ratings-drop



Ouch!

Good hope he gets canned.

[ZetaVI]

The 3rd episode was best so far and showed this show could continue. Chris Harris and Rory did well w/ their segments. They should let Chris Evans go and bring those two to create a trio w/ Matt. Chris Evans isn't improving and doesn't fit anymore. Top Gear still has a potential to do something. I think Chris Harris, Rory, and Matt as main presenters would flow better. Sorry Chris Evans, I tried but you keep dragging the whole thing down.

[FX86]

Extra Gear is better than Top Gear in my opinion

[UFO]

Originally Posted by ZetaVI

The 3rd episode was best so far and showed this show could continue. Chris Harris and Rory did well w/ their segments. They should let Chris Evans go and bring those two to create a trio w/ Matt. Chris Evans isn't improving and doesn't fit anymore. Top Gear still has a potential to do something. I think Chris Harris, Rory, and Matt as main presenters would flow better. Sorry Chris Evans, I tried but you keep dragging the whole thing down.

Chris Evans was much less shouty and less spastic this episode, it seems the powers that be must have had a little talk with him but why does he insist on dressing like a child? Also, the SIARRC was about 20 minutes long, that's like 1/3 of the episode and means the other segments had to be cut down and it's not the best part of the show by a long shot.

The other segments were good butstill had issues. For example: why put a FWD hatch in with the 2 AWD hatches when there's other options like the Golf R or the RS3 and why not put Stig in them and compare lap times? I must say though, I have no clue who this Rory bloke is but he definitely deserves his spot in the show.

And what is the obsession with fake puking?

[themadscientist]

They should hire me. I'll make them puke for real! All the confidence of the Stig with the skills of James May

[NWFRS]

I came in wanting to like it. Barely made it through the first installment. Chris Evans would fit right in on American TopGear...jeeeez that guy is annoying...

[Silver Cervy]

I'm just gonna wait for "The Grand Tour" to air. I watched Top Gear partly for the cars but mainly for Jezza, Slow, and Hamster. The trio is what made the show.

[DAEMANO]

Finally got around to watching the 3rd episode. As I was writing my impressions, I came across Brandon Turkus' write-up which pretty much sums it all up for me so I'm posting the whole thing here...

Guys, Top Gear is back
​
Chris Harris, Rory Reid, and a couple of key guests give us what we’ve been missing.

Brandon Turkus

I adhere to a three-strike rule when checking out a new show. New programs get three chances to prove their value before I write it off. If episode one of Chris Evans' new Top Gear was a strike and episode two a foul tip, episode three is the show's first official home run – Top Gear feels like Top Gear again. Spoilers to follow.

The show has finally stumbled on a workable formula that puts the right hosts in the right places. Evans, has proved he's quite good at shouting, and is stuck shouting in the passenger seat as Sabine Schmitz flings an Audi R8 V10 Plus around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. LeBlanc gets to exercise his comic timing after inadvisably replacing an open-top London sightseeing bus with Ken Block's Hoonicorn Mustang, and the bulk of the actual car reviewing goes to Chris Harris and Rory Reid. They both kill it.

Anyone that's watched Harris during his years on the YouTubes celebrated his appointment to the Top Gear team. But the show has criminally underused our favorite HarrisMonkey, relegating him to Extra Gear. His debut on the big show, then, is a reminder of what fans got excited for in the first place. He's great, running a lovely Ferrari 250 Tour de France around, um, France, before hitting up Circuit Paul Ricard. But rather than using the vintage Ferrari as a lead-in for the main attraction, like Evans did with last week's long-wheel McLaren F1 GTR, Harris actually drives the 250 on the track before into the new Ferrari F12 TdF.

The entire film looks and feels like Top Gear in a way that the show hasn't been able to manage before. Harris draws on his years of review experience and a penchant for drifting to put the F12 through its paces in the same entertaining, easy to understand way that made him a must-view on YouTube. For example, rather than getting all technical with the TdF's rear-wheel steering system, Harris tells us about how it impacts the performance. Considering the lack of driving impressions in the series, Harris' insights are refreshing. We sincerely hope Top Gear continues to use him.

Rory Reid has been the big surprise in this new season. He's made Extra Gear his own thing, a mix of interviewing, entertainment, and car reviewing. Reid's excelled in all three roles, but he showed his range on the last front this week with a three-car hot hatchback comparison. From bombing around Wales in a Ford Focus RS to working out the Honda Civic Type R and Mercedes-AMG A45 – a hatchback version of our CLA45 – on the TG track, Reid is a natural. His drive impressions aren't as detailed as Harris', but he's somehow more relatable – probably because he's not an inhuman drifting machine. Reid is giddy over the idea of a Drift Mode in the RS, and he makes excellent points about where Honda has gone wrong with the Type R. Where Harris can get bogged down in driving minutiae, Reid says the kind of things you might think after driving a car.

But Harris and Reid aren't the only things that make this the best new Top Gear episode so far. After a shaky start with the Dodge Viper and a better outing in the McLaren 675LT, Chris Evans comes into his own with his Audi R8 film. It's not as detailed or focused as Harris or Reid's videos, and Evans still shouts like a gameshow host, but this outing is far and away his best. You can see he's becoming more comfortable talking behind the wheel and sharing the camera with a car. It's good to see Evans paired up with Sabine again, too. The pair run hot laps around Laguna Seca, with the R8's electronic aids on then off, to see which way is faster.

While the test is interesting, TG could have published the results a bit better – it's just a footnote after the film. Also, I'm beginning to get worried about how the show is using Sabine. She was interesting in episode one, but her role in episode three could have been filled by the Stig (or the Stig's Californian cousin – that'd have been a sight). Yes, we know Sabine is a hot shoe racer, but her skill set is too broad to just use her as a Stig replacement.

Evans also gets to flex his interview muscles with a good pair of guests in this week's Superstar in a Rallycross Car segment. Paired with comedian and actor Kevin Hart and IBF World Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua, episode three's interview still has issues – the stilted introductions and car history comparisons suck the energy out of the segment, even with a guest as energetic as Hart – but it's not the cringe-worthy exercise of the last two episodes. In this segment, Evans asks some good questions, getting an inside look at both Joshua's boxing mentality and what it was like for Hart to repeatedly get slapped by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. You won't want to skip it.

Since debuting, Matt LeBlanc has established himself as a funny car guy with a natural character on camera. He's been a standout since his first Ariel Nomad video. For this episode, LeBlanc exercises his funny bone in a very James May way. We won't spoil his video with Ken Block and the Hoonicorn, but suffice it to say, it's the unnecessary but exuberant slide (pun intended) to top off the show's home run.

I'll admit, these recaps have been difficult to write. The first two episodes were just so hard to sit through, especially for fans of Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond – it was like watching someone else drive your car. Episode three is the first time I felt that sense of wonder and entertainment that old Top Gear tapped into so easily during its prime. As I've said, there are still problems, but they are few and minor. A lot of that is because of Harris, Reid, and the guests. Can the show muster the same result next week, when it sounds like Harris and Reid will go back to their Extra Gear duties? I don't know. I doubt it. But TG has some smart producers, and if other outlets echo our positive reception of this week's episode, hopefully we'll see more of Harris and Reid in the future.

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/06/13/t...ri-tdf-review/

[Mr.Impreza]

The viewer numbers explain all for this season so far.

Episode 1 ~ 6.42 Million UK Viewers
Episode 2 ~ 4.06 Million UK Viewers
Episode 3 ~ 3.44 Million UK Viewers
Episode 4 ~ 2.34 Million UK Viewers

Episode 5 comes out today..will be interesting if numbers fall again.

I personally haven't watched any episodes of the new season because to me, Top Gear ended at Season 22, and season 23 will be the new show on amazon with the trio!

Also, some interesting news I found today,

Matt LeBlanc is allegedly planning to quit Top Gear if his co-host Chris Evans is not removed from the team first, sources have claimed.

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...t-chris-evans/

[G-awesome]

Just can Chris Evans and keep the rest of the hosts. It's nothing but a gong show behind the scenes if all the allegations are true. There's always something new every week...

[themadscientist]

We should start a petition to replace him with T-Coat. He's funny as hell in written form; let's get him mic ed up and in a Pagani.

[krayzie]

The Grand Tour coming out after Top Gear will be like when Need For Speed 1 came out after Test Drive III.