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Matt LeBlanc and 4 others join Top Gear

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pemma

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BBC Top Gear" said:
Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for your new Top Gear host… Mr Matt LeBlanc!

Yes, the fastest-ever Star in a Reasonably Priced Car – he famously set an as-yet unbeaten lap time of 1m 42.1s in the Kia cee’d – will join Chris Evans when the new series premieres in May.

“As a car nut and a massive fan of Top Gear, I’m honoured and excited to be a part of this iconic show’s new chapter,” said Matt. “What a thrill!”

Chris Evans said of his new TG presenter: “Matt’s a lifelong fellow petrolhead and I’m thrilled he’s joining Top Gear. Acting out our craziest car notions on screen is a dream job and I know we’ll both be debating some epic road trip ideas.

“We can’t wait to share what we’ve been up to on screen later this year,” he added.

Matt of course, is no stranger to TG screens. After setting that scorching lap time, he reappeared in the following series to test the new Kia cee’d against its predecessor, drove The Stig around in a McLaren MP4-12C, and recently presented the standalone spin-off Top Gear: The Races.

We’ll have more news on additional Top Gear cast members shortly…

http://www.topgear.com/car-news/top-gear-tv/matt-leblanc-joins-top-gear

Does Matt live in the UK now or will he one of those people who presents a UK program despite spending most of the year living abroad like Adam Hills and Michaela Strachan?
 
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ExRes

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Personally it makes no difference to me who else hosts the programme, if Evans is on it I will never watch
 

Clip

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Interesting choice and look forward to it - no matter where he lives.
 

andyb2706

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can Matt drive a stick shift?

Still the fastest celeb on the track so I think yes.

Also quiet a clever trick by the BBC IMO. The main draw to the old Top Gear was the chemistry between the Jez, James and Richard. Until this announcement I wasn't going to bother with the new Top Gear as I am not the biggest fan of Chris Evans, but this is a bit of a curve ball casting Matt Le Blanc....could be very interesting, plus there are to be more announcements on other hosts if I read the article right.
 

Dave1987

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What made the old Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond and May was the friendship the three of them had (the principle reason Hammond and May left) and the banter they had. They were happy to be right on the very edge of what is perceived as acceptable on TV and sometimes went beyond that. But that was reason it attracted a regular audience in region of 8-10 million viewers week in week out not to mention all the rights the Beeb sold around the world. Matt LeBlanc will be a great addition to the show but I remain sceptical. The people who came up with the great ideas are gone, namely Andy Wilman and Clarkson. The Beeb are desperate for their main big brand to continue to be a big seller and that's undoubtedly why they have paid Evans £3m odd a year and no doubt LeBlanc didn't come cheap. It remains to be seen as to whether Evans and the remaining producers have any original ideas to make the show what it was before. If not then I will give it two series until its canned again. If they do have some good original ideas then it may live on and be as good as it was under Clarkson, May and Hammond.


The potential fly in the ointment for the Beeb is whatever the three of them come up with on Amazon Prime.......

I've noticed they have said they will continue The Star in the Reasonably Priced Car, Power lap board and The Stig (All of which were Clarkson's ideas) so so far nothing original at all.
 
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pemma

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plus there are to be more announcements on other hosts if I read the article right.

From previous announcements I get the impression Top Gear will be more like The Gadget Show in terms of presenters/reporters, so they'll be a few in total but they won't always all be in the studio for the studio bits.

Speaking of which Jon Bentley who does some bits for The Gadget Show used to work on the Top Gear production team, could he be a candidate?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The potential fly in the ointment for the Beeb is whatever the three of them come up with on Amazon Prime.......

And whether Amazon's marketing poly works. One of the reasons they signed Clarkson, Hammond and May is because they hope it will attract more Prime subscribers and Prime subscribers are known to more likely buy from Amazon as Prime Subscribers get free next day delivery on all Amazon items or alternatively free no rush delivery and a £1 Amazon MP3 credit.

I've just done a free trial of Amazon and found that certain newish films and TV series are available to watch on Amazon but aren't offered as part of the Prime subscription. While if you go to Amazon Music you find there isn't much of a back catalogue available as part of your subscription. I can see a lot of people subscribing for the first year to get Clarkson/Hammond/May and then not continuing with their subscription, especially if the price of the subscription goes up further.
 
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Kite159

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From previous announcements I get the impression Top Gear will be more like The Gadget Show in terms of presenters/reporters, so they'll be a few in total but they won't always all be in the studio for the studio bits.

Speaking of which Jon Bentley who does some bits for The Gadget Show used to work on the Top Gear production team, could he be a candidate?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


And whether Amazon's marketing poly works. One of the reasons they signed Clarkson, Hammond and May is because they hope it will attract more Prime subscribers and Prime subscribers are known to more likely buy from Amazon as Prime Subscribers get free next day delivery on all Amazon items or alternatively free no rush delivery and a £1 Amazon MP3 credit.

I've just done a free trial of Amazon and found that certain newish films and TV series are available to watch on Amazon but aren't offered as part of the Prime subscription. While if you go to Amazon Music you find there isn't much of a back catalogue available as part of your subscription. I can see a lot of people subscribing for the first year to get Clarkson/Hammond/May and then not continuing with their subscription, especially if the price of the subscription goes up further.

I've heard that Amazon are trialling out monthly Prime, so instead of paying the £79 up front, you can pay something like £7.99 a month (i.e. more than if you paid up front) which probably would get more customers signed up for the service.

----

As for Mr LeBlanc, the proof will be in the pudding
 

Tim R-T-C

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I got peeved off with Prime during my free trial month when it would always default to "Express" shipping, at high cost, even when free Prime could often deliver quicker (its evening cut off was later for some reason). A real pain on a mobile to notice this and change it, could easily miss it and end up paying another £10 for the privilege.

I wonder if a monthly prime would work, just from the postage point-of-view, around Christmas, people will sign up for the month and order all their Christmas presents on Prime, then cancel. Would be chaos at the Amazon factory!

---

As for Matt le Blanc, seems like a clever idea to attract people who probably were not interested in Top Gear as a 'lads mag' program - I expect there will be more emphasis on the celebrity guests too.

Personally I never really liked the show as it was - as a big fan of British domestic motorsport, I always felt that they could have done more to promote great racing series such as the BTCC and British GT - having the winning drivers on the show for example - and bring them more to the mainstream attention.
 

Bletchleyite

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I got peeved off with Prime during my free trial month when it would always default to "Express" shipping, at high cost, even when free Prime could often deliver quicker (its evening cut off was later for some reason). A real pain on a mobile to notice this and change it, could easily miss it and end up paying another £10 for the privilege.

Is that perhaps a misconfiguration in your account? I have Prime and for me it always defaults to the fastest Prime delivery that is free. You can still knock it down to the "best effort" one that gets you a Kindle voucher.
 

LAX54

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A media guy on BBC News this morning talking about this, said that in reality Top Gear is a well scripted sit-com, so Mr le Blanc should fit in well, and feel at home :)
 

NY Yankee

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I loved him on Friends. He was so hilarious. However, I'm not sure if he's done anything besides Friends. He'll forever be Joey Tribiani.
 

Geezertronic

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I really don't know about all of those presenters and whether they'd all be needed.

Not heard of Rory Reid or this Chris Harris before (I am surprised Chris Evans allowed another Chris onto the show tbh), not keen on Eddie Jordan based on his BBC F1 analysis, Sabine Schmitz has presenter experience before, not sure if Matt LeBlanc has, wonder who the new Stig is? Possibly Tiff?

Suffice to say, you cannot fit them all in a family saloon (7 seaters excluded) so too many presenters if you ask me
 

Dave1987

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Sorry can't see the show being anywhere near as good as it used to be with this lot. It's clear the Beeb don't what the Top Gear brand to die but they haven't exactly assembled the best presenter line up. Played it far far too safe.
 

EM2

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Not heard of Rory Reid or this Chris Harris before
Had you heard of Richard Hammond and James May before?
Chris Harris is a wwell-known motoring journalist, having previously been road test editor of Autocar, as well as writing for a myriad of other titles. And he upset Ferrari quite dramatically, to the point that they banned him driving any of their cars for two years.
Rory Reid came through Evans's 'open audition' process, although he does have experience in TV and with cars, however most of his broadcasts are on You Tube. He has also presented on Sky's 'Gadget Geeks'.
 

Tetchytyke

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Not heard of Rory Reid or this Chris Harris before

Chris Harris has been at Autocar for years, and has successfully managed to provoke both Ferrari and Lamborghini into banning him from test-driving their cars.

I think he'll be right at home on Top Gear.

James May (also from Autocar) and Richard Hammond (who got the job in an audition after wasting away on Granada Men and Motors) had very similar backgrounds, really.

The weak link remains Chris Evans, truth be told. I'm impressed by the rest of the presenting team, even EJ; he's a bit of an arse, but he knows what he's talking about.
 
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Minilad

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What they really need is an unknown newcomer, a man off the street if you will, with dashing good looks and a suave sophisticated personality to flail around in fast cars and tell everyone how great they are.
I propose me!!
 

Pakenhamtrain

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One of the things that worked will for "Old" top gear was the chemistry between Clarkson, Hammond and May. The same problem existed with AU top gear. it was just 3 blokes who just didn't work well together and ended up trying to replicate the original.
Chances are the six will end up after a few episodes doing the same. The have to take it in another direction and stick with it. No doubt they won't be allowed get away with anything old TG did.

Another part is the 3 have very individual personalities. Clarkson was a hoon, May the sensible driver and Hammond was the off road type. What do these six bring to the table?
 

jon0844

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I know Rory and he's a good bloke. Him and Chris Harris suggests they are going to try and become more serious about cars, which may or may not work.

Currently YouTube is killing it for in depth car reviews and tests, and Top Gear was for mostly entertainment.

We shall have to see how it works and how much of an ar*e Chris Evans is and what changes are made during the series to tweak things here and there.
 

Crossover

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I'd watch it just for Sabine. And the fact Clarkson is no longer on it. But mostly for Sabine

Well, I'll give you that :lol:

What they really need is an unknown newcomer, a man off the street if you will, with dashing good looks and a suave sophisticated personality to flail around in fast cars and tell everyone how great they are.
I propose me!!

Ha - don't give up the day job ;)
 

pemma

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Suffice to say, you cannot fit them all in a family saloon (7 seaters excluded) so too many presenters if you ask me

I think we'll see 3/4 of them in the studio each week, probably Evans and Le Blanc with the others on rotation and the others will do a lot of the off-site filming.
 

Kite159

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I'm imagining the new TG will be a lot like Fifth Gear, mainly focusing on cars reviews rather than trying to be an entertainment show.

So this week, you have Sabine & The Stig racing around the track in some mega-expensive supercars, Chris showing the benefits of some 2nd hand vehicles, Rory & Matt doing a road-test for a sensible car which people might buy and Eddie doing a "motorsports roundup", with links in a closed studio by Chris with one of his rare cars behind him.
 

CallySleeper

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Breaking news:

"Top Gear" to be renamed by the BBC with immediate effect, it will now be called "Equality and Diversity Gear"
 

Dave1987

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As expected, a one show style ensemble cast of presenters - promising stuff

I severely doubt the 8 million people that regularly watched the old Top Gear would agree with you there. Yes you will get some people who will tune in if its a car version of The One Show but I doubt it will ever reach the peak the show did under Clarkson, Hammond and May. I'm willing to give it a go and will tune into the new series when it's broadcast but if it is going to be the format that I think it will, I won't be a viewer for long. I think it should be renamed "Top we are going to play it extremely safe Gear". The banter and the jokes the old presenters had and them sailing very close to the mark was what made the show what it was and why the viewer count was so high.
 
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