By on December 12, 2008

Topgear.com/us/blog reports that NBC has decided not to add the U.S. version of the British car show to their prime time line-up. Well, to any part of their lineup. “We have a scoop on the much-anticipated U.S. version of ‘Top Gear’: BBC has decided to take the show to cable, where presenters’ funny mouths, from which often spill foul words, will be more at home. There are no hard feelings and NBC will be sharing custody of ‘Top Gear’ dog. A number of cable networks were delighted with the news… watch this space.” Yeah right. NBC killed it– I mean the BBC “moved it” to cable because of swear words which, as everyone knows, can’t be deleted or bleeped and would cause NBC’s twenty-four prime time viewers to change channels. And the presenters couldn’t be happier with all this. In any case, given Top Gear US’s phenomenal, NBC-funded budget, we’re looking at one of two possibilities. First, Top Gear US will air on cable, and then die. Second, it will air on cable, and then live– as a MUCH smaller-budget program. And then die. Meanwhile, the mess is so bad, the Top Gear blog is distancing itself from the wreckage. “This gives us an opportunity to clear up some of the confusion regarding why TopGear.com is here. Lots of people, judging from comments and discussions in the forums, think we’re the support website for an American ‘Top Gear’ television show. We’re not. Heck, we couldn’t even discuss a pilot that was allegedly filmed at some point last summer somewhere much warmer than the frigid climes that surround our office in New York.” If you think it’s cold now

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14 Comments on “NBC Banishes Top Gear U.S. to Cable to Die...”


  • avatar
    andrichrose

    It cant be anything worse than Top Gear live
    in the UK ,
    I have never seen so many short, balding ,
    thirty something men in one place !

  • avatar
    John Horner

    The networks are becoming a little more irrelevant with each passing day. They need mega-audience blockbusters to survive, yet very few really interesting shows have that potential. Cable/satellite channel only distribution is just fine. Most of the best shows go that way anyhow!

  • avatar
    VerbalKint

    I’m afraid I have to disagree with andrichrose. IMHO nothing from the BBC that gets transplanted and “adapted” to the US market is ever as good as the original…

  • avatar
    zerofoo

    As long as I can watch Clarkson, Hammond, and May, I don’t care what happens to the US version of this show.

    NBC seems to have lost their way in the last couple of years.

    -ted

  • avatar

    Well it was a self-fulfilling prophecy from the beginning – no one expected it to survive, let alone be any good. For all of Top Gear UK’s predictability and curmudgeonly antics of Clarkson, it’s still a great show to kill time and brain cells. Hell, the fact that Adam Corolla is on this version is enough to turn me off. I got more than enough of him on the Man Show.

  • avatar
    jayparry

    TTAC should do a TV show! It was be so much more scathing like the original british top gear

  • avatar
    davejay

    MHO nothing from the BBC that gets transplanted and “adapted” to the US market is ever as good as the original…

    What about “Three’s Company”?

  • avatar

    Tanner Faust killed the show for me.

    ANYONE but him.

  • avatar
    guyincognito

    Hmm, sounds like a good thing to me. On cable they would actually be able to speak their minds. This will definitely help it be a better show. Will it ever be as good as the original, probably not, but if it is sufficiently different it could be enjoyable and hang around.

  • avatar
    seabrjim

    Funny how the speed channel can waste a few hours of your life on the poorly produced “livin the low life”, and “superbikes”. Garbage produced by retards. Even Greg White was worlds better than this nonsense.

  • avatar
    Jimal

    Remember, “Family Guy” originally died on the Fox vine only to blossom on cable (and DVD sales),return to the network a few years later, bigger and better and then rake in the dough with spin-offs and syndication.

    Giggity giggity,
    Giggity goo.

  • avatar
    Greg Locock

    “IMHO nothing from the BBC that gets transplanted and “adapted” to the US market is ever as good as the original…”

    The Office (US) is an extremely funny program in its own right, with a different thrust to the original, but that is fine.

    Luckily you guys won’t get to see Top Gear Australia, unless you accidentally type “epic fail” into You Tube’s search feature. Don’t.

  • avatar
    Demetri

    “The Office (US) is an extremely funny program in its own right, with a different thrust to the original, but that is fine.”

    The UK version could be downright depressing at times. Also, it was hard to relate to some of the inter-office stuff that that went on that seemed more European. I recall a lot of open sexual stuff that would never go down in a US office, at least not without a sexual harassment lawsuit.

  • avatar
    B.C.

    Tanner Faust killed the show for me.

    ANYONE but him.

    I’ve nodded off while watching his Supercars Unleashed show …

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