US Version of Top Gear is coming to NBC in March
 

NBC has ordered a pilot for “Gear”, an American version of Top Gear, that will be officially announced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit (January 19-27).

The pilot will be filmed at a secret location around Los Angeles equipped with a race track and hangar where the show will be filmed in front of a audience.

NBC reality chief Craig Plestis said the network already is getting numerous inquiries from car companies that had heard rumblings about a U.S. remake.

“This is a favorite of all automobile companies as it shows their cars in such a great light,” he said.

NBC reality chief Craig Plestis said he is a longtime fan of “Top Gear.”

“It all comes down to subject matter — it’s a cool show about cars,” he said. “It’s very compelling for us because we have a great platform and space on the network to have such a show.”

Among “Gear’s” popular segments that will be replicated in the U.S. are races where the hosts have to reach a destination using different modes of transportation, road tests, challenges like converting and refurbishing existing cars into anything from a stretch limo to an amphibian and celebrities racing a midsize car. holds the record for fastest lap time with a Chevrolet Lacetti.)

The series will premiere at 11 p.m. on March 4th before moving to its regular time period at 10 p.m. March 11th.

I have mixed feelings about this.

I LOVE Top Gear, but I feel some much of it's success is because of the chemistry between Jeremy, Richard and James. I still feel the concept is good, but I fear anything without them would lend itself too much towards Road and Track.

Anyway, I'll be interested to see how this goes over. 11pm seems rather late, especially since it's reality and that there is so little other original programming on at the moment.

Oh yeah, Gear? Couldn't come up with something better?

Well to be far the British versions of this show aren't much better. Top Gear and Fifth Gear being the names of the two British ones.

Agree - mixed feelings, but you can see that in the audience of the UK show its almost more women than men now, my wife loves to watch it with me.

I enjoy the star in a reasonably priced car bit, so that should translate well.

Yeah, I really do think almost all of the greatness of the show comes from the three hosts. They have a certain wit about them that really makes watching the show enjoyable. The dry humor also works really well, where I fear NBC would go for a more zany approach.

I know it's par the course to say an American remake of a British show won't work, but I just don't see how it can in this case. Not as a primetime network show anyways.

11PM? Isn't the news on at 11?

I've seen the show, but am not so passionate about it that the change of hosts is a deal breaker for me. This is one of those cases (very rare) when the strike is a good thing - it gives something like this a chance to hit the airwaves. I doubt something like it would have ever seriously had a chance on a network if not for the strike.

Something doesnt seem right bout the premiere time at "11PM", its normal slot will be at 10PM though. I am interested to see how they make this work. I have sen a few episodes of the Top Gear UK version and liked it. Hopefully NBC wont butcher this,

I like Top Gear when they Aren't doing those contrived bits.

American cars don't really have a great track record on Top Gear. Could you imagine a PT Cruiser or Ford Fusion getting the Top Gear treatment? They'd rip it to shreds.

D

Ohhhhhhh, f*ck no. This sucks.

My feelings too.

No way they'll rip on American cars, gotta' keep the sponsors happy.

I have mixed feeling, too... I hope they're not going to only focus on American cars.

By the way, any idea who'll host the show?

I think the best way to look at this show is as totally separate to Top Gear. Sure, it's got a similar name and no doubt the format will be similar, but the chemistry will be different between the hosts, I imagine the focus will be different as well, seeing as America and the UK have rather different car markets... I'm more than willing to give it a chance, I like many car shows that aren't Top Gear. I don't see why this will be any different.

I just hope that it doesn't get plied so heavily with sponsorship from car firms that they give fantastic reviews of shitty cars. It's been known to happen, maybe not in car magazines, but certainly in other fields.

I expect it to stay irreverent as Clarkson is still involved.

so is this the same group that does Fifth Gear? I get sucked up watching that show for hours on youtube. is there a american tv station that plays fifth gear?

Mixed feelings here... as said before, what really makes Top Gear great are the hosts... so I guess if they can find a good trio to host the show, maybe they can make this work. And I find the "contrived" bits on Top Gear some of the funniest segments. I was ROFL during the caravaning episode, even knowing the whole fire was staged.

BTW, anyone know why BBC America is airing reruns right now? I know the episodes they show lag 6 months or so behind the UK airings, but they're showing stuff right now that they had on several months ago. I really wish they'd just air them on the same dates as the BBC UK does.
I also wish they'd air them uncut... that ticks me off cause I'd rather watch on BBC America vs. downloading them

I think if it's missing the snarky humor (including all the jabs they take at Americans), it's not going to work.

sauce07: Top Gear and Fifth Gear are both British car shows but I think they're pretty different otherwise... though I haven't really watched Fifth Gear, my impression is it's a bit more of a straightforward car show than Top Gear is.

Who would everyone like to see as hosts? I'm drawing a blank right now... Jay Leno maybe? Our very own RandyC? ;)

Thanks. One of the things I always liked about fifth Gear was that it didn't dumb down its car talk. I'm not going to pretend that I am the most informed car nut but at the same time I don't need a host to treat me like i'm 5 helping my dad work on a car. .

They just "ended" the season few weeks ago.

I'll watch and give it a shot, but I have serious doubts about this show... although my main doubt isn't the hosts, it's the cars... in the US, we have certain regulations that make it nearly impossible to test drive exotic cars as they have to go through all of these insanely stupid safety alterations... it's why I can't just go to Mexico and buy a new Peugeot and register it here. Maybe they have a way around it, but I'm thinking it'll just be cars we already know about. I did expect this US remake to eventually come along though.

A couple of weeks ago Adam Carolla confirmed on his radio show that he will be one of the hosts. Unfortunately he didn't give any other details about the show.

I can see Adam filling the Clarkson role fairly well. Adam's a pretty big gear head. Like Clarkson he hates NASCAR and American muscle cars and he loves F1 and euro cars. He has owned a Lambo, Ferrari, Aston, Jag, etc. And he has a long history of berating the LAPD, their "chicken S tickets" and encouraging people to break traffic laws.

My concern isn't the hosts or even the cars specifically (on the low end I wouldn't mind seeing more US market cars), but how beholden NBC will be to the car manufacturers.

How the fuck is he doing to do his radio show, Dancing With the Stars and this? He's becoming Ryan Seacrest! ;)

Don't forget he is also opening his movie "The Hammer" this week, which is why he decided to do DWTS in the first place.

He went over his schedule for the week on his show yesterday and it's pretty packed. Between his show, DWTS and dance practice, the film premiere and guest spots on Stern,Leno, etc, he did mention that Thursday afternoon he will be filming stuff for Top Gear at El Toro airforce base.

So did I miss this or did the schedule slip?

So, they're going to use on former El Toro Marine air base? Interesting... Last time I heard about the plan to use vacany air base was in debate - real hot debate - anywhere from convert into air cargo base, international airport, apartments, and lot more - that was years ago. I guess I need to catch up with what's going on at El Toro base.

It hasn't aired yet afaik.

They're probably holding back for the DWTS to help get it some additional promotion, as well as AC's movie "The Hammer" which is getting surprisingly decent reviews (both for Carolla and the movie itself). Which I'm assuming NBC wasn't counting on either, and will likely hope for some cross promotion when Carolla does his promotional rounds.

Highly watched show (DWTS) + decently acclaimed movie = NBC's brain gears moving.