If there was any doubt surrounding the future certain failure of Top Gear, it was put to rest today.
Eddie Jordan — famous for running a Formula 1 team into the ground, being the Irish orange yin to David Coulthard’s pasty, Scottish yang during BBC Formula 1 coverage, and for making Bernie Ecclestone look like a normal-sized human being — has been tipped as the third host of Top Gear, reports Radio Times.
Plot lost.
It was announced Thursday that Matt LeBlanc would co-host the British “motoring programme” with BBC Radio star Chris Evans. Others, such as Sabine Schmitz and Chris Harris, were also rumored to host the show. However, it seems those with actual driving abilities will be relegated to second fiddle status as Jordan will be standing (presumably on a box) beside LeBlanc and Evans.
Jordan, 67, ran Jordan Grand Prix from 1991 to 2005 before it was sold off and rebranded as Midland. In 2009, he joined the BBC’s F1 coverage team. He’s a Tory, much like the outgoing Jeremy Clarkson, and also an amateur Murray Walker.
“People who will conceivably put up with Jeremy Clarkson’s bull$hit”
“What are qualifications to be a host of Top Gear, Alex?”
I’m just angry I did that Demo Video for nothing.
I’m not gonna watch the new show. JAY LENO GARAGE owns…
When Jay Leno’s Garage first came out I thought it would be a show about, you know, Jay Leno’s garage. Do an hour long show about each interesting car in his collection, aimed at actual car guys. Show me the provenance, the restoration, the maintenance, and a whole bunch of driving it.
Instead we get canned segments with forced themes and “celebrity” spoofs. Blech.
Exactly. Came to see cars, changed channel when Leno starting using his “comedian” voice.
Never heard of this guy, but I surely like his Chairman Mao jacket and teal snakeskin belt.
That’s not a Chairman Mao jacket. He must have been in a high school band, and is proud that he can still fit into it.
So a program that I only ever saw in a few reruns, I still won’t watch.
I guess they think the audience will appreciate the pedigree – such as it is – of this new crew.
You didn’t watch Friends cause you didn’t like it, you didn’t watch TG cause you didn’t like it.
You stick to Nova on PBS or books, or what?
May I suggest Ed Gamble, Andrew Dice Clay and Martin Short and/or Russell Brandt for a truly “memorable” host cast for The New Top Gear UK?
Martin Short doesn’t deserve to be grouped in with those turds. Dude was on SCTV and Saturday Night Live.
Tis truth.
I actually love Martin Short.
His Nathan Thurm character is legendary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98MNisZJyFI
The guy that has seats next to me at Pistons games looks exactly like Martin Short. He is also an accountant that takes his own stats during the game.
Replace him with SB Cohen in Ali G character.
And Talk of the Town.
@DW
Surprised this person wasn’t on your list:
http://www.instagram.com/p/BBSej6OngN73uBz6KcEAgEwHXCUC_x_3GoJKxo0/
I just threw up in my mouth.
If anyone else wants to, it’s video of Melody “Millennial” Lee doing a fashion walk “strut” at the New York Fashion Show.
It’s beyond sad that General Motors and Cadillac are proud to have the likes of her (“we;re a brand, not a maker of product”) and Uwe Montblanc handling their marketing.
Watch the link; throw up a little bit. Cadillac Style.
Dammit!
The hottest woman in America and I can’t watch the Instagram vid on this old box!
I can only assume that Melody Lee rejected Deadweight in particularly inconsiderate fashion at some point in the shadowy past of Detroit.
Not into Asian women that way – at all.
I <3 Ukrainian, Czech, Scandinavian, Hungarian, Croatian, types.
I googled Melody Lee
– This may not be her but the answers to this interview eerily fit a Cadillac executive:
MIL: We all know that sometimes things don’t work out the way we want. What’s your plan B?
ML: I am trying to build a brand I am a hustler at heart but going back to school for Criminal Justice would be my plan B
MIL: How big of a role has the Internet played in your career?
ML: Social Networking and support from my fan’s has played a big role for last 6yrs
MIL: Whats your fetish?
ML: besides heels (laughs) Bondage
MIL: Do you have underwear on right now ,If so what kind and what color?
ML: yea my Vicki’s Yellow
Music is life Magazine
That’s not the same Melody Lee. Although perhaps Cadillac’s Melody Lee *should* give interviews like this – placement in Fifty Shades of Grey got Audi plenty of attention.
Cadillac did have fantastic product placement as Goldie’s ride in The Mack.
1) I want my 10 seconds back
2) how the hell is Cadillac still in business
Donald Trump for Jezzer, Apolo Ohno for the Hamster, and David Rees for Captain slow.
Wait! None of them has anything to do with cars! (Just like the cancelled version?)
JB for Jeremy, and… who am I to pick his cohosts? Just watching him explain why “the stig wasn’t *really* faster, the clock was wrong” will be worth the price.
@DeadWeight, ADC “Ford Fairlane” would be EPIC.
Star in reasonably price car: Nothing disgusts me. At the age of eleven I walked in on my father and the Shetland pony. Does that excite you?
Ford Fairlane: I don’t know, I never met your father.
Saying Jordan ran his team into the ground is pretty harsh. He did a respectable job in an environment that was tailor made to destroy teams like his; I’m not sure it would have been possible to do much better.
In addition, his driving abilities may put Richard Hammond’s to shame (subject to his advanced age). He’s almost became a World Champion when Schumie was injured.
You don’t really think that Eddie Jordan and Eddie Irvine are the same guy do you ?
LOL, all those Irish Eddies sound the same.
Eddie Jordan driving for Ferrari no less.
That may well be a great combo. I like Eddie Jordan and what he has to say during BBC’s coverage of Formula 1. Rather than Evans, I would have chosen Tim Shaw who does a great job on Car SOS. Is that last show aired in the U.S.?
The team ia also still alive as force india. I think Jordan is an OK commentator. As for the chemistry the outgoing cast had, you’re not going to be able to duplicate it.
Personally, I think they should have taken the whole Clarkson episode as the opportunity it was and let the show die. I watched every episode through the first dozen or so seasons and enjoyed them very much. But the show seemed to be running out of ideas and the the stunts were even more obviously scripted as the show went on. I get that BBC doesn’t want to just walk away from such a massively popular show, but that’s the sort of mentality that gets you 10+ fast and furious movies. Profits > taste I suppose…
The last season was so bad, from a writing/script, effort (phoned in) & lack of creativity perspective, I genuinely believe Clarkson sabotaged the then-current show (if one considers he that he was on a last strike policy by the BBC, and that assault & battery of a film crew member would certainly be a strike out).
There’s only so much that can be done with the same source material and basic recipe.
It didn’t help that desensitization towards Supercars (e.g. LaFerrari) has set in, IMO (Supercar exhaustion).
I’ll take your word on the last season, I haven’t seen the last few seasons.
And I couldn’t agree with you more about the super cars. It used to be a big deal when they pulled a koenigsegg or veyron out onto the TG test track. Then it started to be nearly every episode there was some new super car. Now koenigsegg, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, etc all have a new ultra exclusive gimmick-mobile that costs a few million and has a theoretical max speed of 300mph every other year. I can’t bring myself to care even a little about these cars anymore.
Agreed. I did enjoy watching them beat 100k cars in Australia. Some of the racing was silly, but decent as a travel piece. I’m sure Matt LeBlanc can turn Michelins into clouds as well as the Orangatang
The last truly decent episode was the Orangutan and Cap’n Slow having a comparison and race in CUVs; Jeremy in Mazda CX-5 and James in a VW Tiguan having a caravan race to a camp site. Still my go-to episode for a s*** Monday.
Lets rename “The Truth About Cars” to “The Opinion About Car Shows.”
I thought the same thing. Click bait title. Dumb.
In a few months Harris and Schmitz will be like, “Whew, that was lucky.”
Last I heard the original cast of Top Gear is still doing a show on Netflix….or was it Amazon? Brilliant for whichever streaming service picked it up. Akin to Sirrius picking up Howard Stern. Great exposure to streaming television for folks who will buy service just to watch the old gang.
Anyway, I am not sure that a new Top Gear can thrive in a world where the old Top Gear is still making new shows. There is just something about chemistry that cannot be replicated. But, as car fans, we will all probably watch both.
Apparently that’s in doubt now too as Clarkson decided to punch Amazon’s CEO up the bracket.
Wasn’t it Eddie Jordan who went on that rant when F1 teams pulled out of the Indy race due to a tire problem?
Seems likely to me that they’re going to have a rotating cast of co-presenters around Evans. Chris Harris is clearly involved at some level (he’s in a photo of a production meeting recently posted on Twitter and has stopped his patreon stuff).
The guy they should have hired is Perry McCarthy. being a former Stig and a truly entertaining guy certainly qualifies him. Read his book “Flat Out, Flat Broke” and you will see what I mean.
Perry is the British Kenny Wallace, except that I just want to change the channel instead of shooting my TV.
It is premature to say that the show is ruined. It was already dying of old age. It may work as long as they try to carve a new path as opposed to producing a robotic version of the old show.
Clarkson, May, and Hammond may do better on a new show since they will be able to push the boundaries further than what was allowed on “public” TV. I do hope that they too try to come up with some new material.
Time will tell.
Yep, I’m not passing judgement till I see it. I think Matt is most likely going to be the worst part of the new cast because he is not British, that was most of the show’s charm. Now we all know it will NEVER capture the chemistry of the original three. However as long as its somewhat funny it will be worth watching. My expectations are pretty low so hopefully they can meet them. Lets face it US TG is bad and I still watch it because honestly what else is on? Flip This House? Me and My 8 Kids? Midgets on Parade? The Next Music Mogul? UGH… almost all TV is terrible so TG UK only has to be one level better than that.
Matt was on Top Gear within the past few seasons as a guest and I was surprised at how lifeless he was. It seemed like he didn’t know how to further conversation. He might be a fine actor, but I don’t see him doing well in an environment where I feel that quite a few things are improvised.
“Midgets on Parade…”
Priceless!!! COTD!!!
(Is that “25 Kids, ‘Cause We’re Nuts??!!” Or “Here Comes Honey-I-Just-Threw-Up-In-My-Mouth!!” So many possibilities!)
Other than watching Clarkson roll the Reliant Robin, Top Gear was a bore.
It was a showcase for a stale British stereotype. Know it all attitude, glorying in “two world wars and one world cup” as the peak of mankind’s 20th century achievement, and really awful long greasy hair. They were only missing Shane MacGowan teeth and Prince Charles ears.
“Compact cars are for wimps. Give me a V8 and a six speed so I can lug along in first gear around the M25.
Now watch as I insult the people who bought up the post Leyland wreckage of Britain’s motor industry. Germans, Indians, Chinese, we’re superior to you all! But we’re broke, so brother can you spare a dime?
I’m a bigot but I call it being politically incorrect, and that makes me brave and a rebel!”
For the revival, I suggest Eddie Jordan, Eddie Irvine, and Eddie the Eagle Edwards.
Then they could call it Eddies in the Space Time Continuum. It will still suck, but we could debate “has been, or never was?” for ever.
I think you missed the forest for the trees that was TG. First two seasons are a snore and it wasn’t til the second episode or so of the third where the chemistry was finally right and the producers let the Hosts go Monty Python-esque. Yeah they poked fun at the British Car industry and took the British xenophobia and Victorian sense of superiority to a comic direction by flying a Spitfire in to visit Zee Germans, but it was tongue-in-cheek. The show started to fail in the last season(s) precisely because the hosts (Jeremy) taking themselves too seriously and losing that British charm and dry wit that made the show what it was.
For what it was, Top Gear was fantastically entertaining. I actually think many “non car types” watched it for it’s comedy.
The BBC has fncked Top Gear. Sort of like having the David Letterman Show and using someone else than Letterman host it.
Maybe now we’ll look back fondly on the US Top Gear? I doubt it.
You guys could always do a knock-off version of TTAC editors past and present; instead of the Jeremy Clarkson video you could have the Bertel Schmidt shibari segment; it would probably be the top draw unless you’re going to try to troll the South with soap markers.
Bertel would inevitably have a “what vehicle makes for best BDSM/Rape Van?” segment.
Double points for the Subaru Tribeca!!
I know they won’t do it, but they should ditch the name Top Gear and start over. Anything they come up with will pale against the old Top Gear. Only thing they can replicate is the extraordinary production. Prior versions of Top Gear sucked too until Hammond, May, and Clarkson came together.
Top Gear was a show long before this cast took over. Jeremy Clarkson was a long time contributor and had worked endlessly to get the producers to change the format IOT bring in more ratings. A good one to watch is him in horrifying 90s curly weave test driving the new ’99 Vauxhall Astra, gives you a flavor of what he was capable of comedy wise and where he was trying to push the show.
Clarkson was very forward thinking at a time when old Top Gear was very starchy and conservative. Those old episodes had a lot of -really- boring content. Highlights were Clarkson’s entertaining reviews, and I think Chris Goffey was also good. He always threw in some sarcasm when he was reviewing.
It’s funny to hear the upper class accent he put on at the time, compared to how casual and common he sounds now. From what I understand, it was hard to get on the BBC if you didn’t sound properly moneyed.
Christ, it keeps getting worse.
I’ve only seen a few episodes of Top Gear, including the last two about the fiasco in Argentina. The show struck me as a cross between a car show and Monty Python. As such, the selection of hosts would be more important to me as humor entertainment than to learn about cars.
Argentina worked as the only time you saw “the show behind the show”.
Glad I don’t care or I might feel 3 X worse than when I see a Stooges with Curly Joe instead of Curly Howard.
I was a big fan of the Jordan team back in the “Buzzing Hornets” days, but um yeah… there should be some kind of restraining order for Eddie and microphones. The F-1 post-race interviews can be all-kinds of awkward. Not as awkward as when they let the Govern-nator have his turn, that was more like “so awkward it’s awesome.”
You know, I kind of think that LeBlanc might be the best presenter of the three, if only because he seems like he might actually still have a vague recollection of what a normal car is like.
Underneath the bark and bluster were three chaps who, despite their celebrity and wealth, still understood what cars meant. Clarkson and May have both risen through the ranks by doing a fine job writing about every vehicle you might imagine, at every price point you could mention.
Post Clarkson, though, we now have another three very wealthy men, but who not only have no need to trouble themselves with the kinds of car that underpin the very existence of the entire industry, but they’ve never demonstrated they have an interest, either.
I’ll give it a chance, of course, but I can’t imagine any of them having any interesting points to raise, so I expect there will be a lot of directly vocalizing press releases.
The new series will probably be impeccably produced and look beautiful, but I’ve a feeling it’ll be best watched with the sound turned down.
Treat it as a screensaver.
When I started watching Top Gear I HATED Clarkson with a passion but I loved the show. Slowly, over years, I grew to really like him. Even though I often didn’t agree with him, I genuinely enjoyed his politically incorrect, say what he thought attitude that made the show so interesting and sometimes very funny to watch. I think the show ran a few years too many and they ran out of fresh ideas. The last couple of seasons were pretty awful but I still watched every show.
I wish the new show luck and hope it’s great but at the end of the day, there will never be another Clarkson.
Guy on the left looks like Woody Allen’s mafia brother.
God, I pity the woman…
Will LeBlanc be expected to laugh along at all the nasty anti-USA cracks?
A milder form of that permeates all the Brit TV I watch.
Can anything say “seething jealousy” quite as clearly?
FWIW, I’m pretty sure it’s “Yin” and “Yang,” not “Ying.”
As for the cast, it’s quite an odd smattering for sure, but if given enough time to gel, you never know, it may be entertaining.
It’s hard to beat a crew that’s been together for more than 10 years and gelled very well, though… And, let’s be honest, Clarkson is one of a kind. Both good and bad, but almost always entertaining.
I hope Chris Harris gets a bigger, more regular role in the show. He’s already got the stuff to be a main presenter on a show of this caliber.
My guess is this thing will be an absolute bore. Again, Harris, Jackson, and Kidd would’ve been a fantastic show to watch. Harris is a hell of a driver and a great presenter. Rebecca knows her cars, and watching her in that rally with Tiff was the most enjoyable Fifth Gear has been in a LONG time. Similarly, Clarkson vs. Jodie driving Minis a few years back on TG was great.
TG needs energy, not a bunch of ultra rich old guys who will sleep through a Lamborghini review. Put some girls on the screen! VBH is pretty much the only reason to watch anything Fifth Gear does.
Only having caught a few episodes of the original BBC show, was Rebecca the one who was given the task of destroying a W116 (or whatever the Benz 300 TD wagon was — forgive me, B&B) by any means necessary in one of the episodes?
Huh? I stop paying attention for a while and all this happens. I would have been interested to watch a show with Sabine Schmitz and Chris Harris, but with that lineup? Probably not. Maybe someone at the BBC looked around and said, “Wait! We already made a series with great drivers in Fifth Gear, but no one really watched it.”
Photo shows three men who aren’t paying attention to each other, and aren’t on the same page. I’m sure there’s some symbolism of something or other there.
Never watched Friends (or Seinfeld, for that matter) probably because at that time, I lived in Manhattan, had that lifestyle, and had friends who also had that lifestyle in Manhattan.
Now, we’d all be in some crappy part of Brooklyn, but there was a time when mere yuppies could have a real NYC Apt. If you ain’t 212 you aren’t in “the city”. (yup, I’m old)
Still, Matt LeBlanc was lots of fun on TG, and he gets kudos for being the fastest Star in a RPC. I think he’d be a good host.
Fifth Gear left me cold. I tried to like it, but, no. I’d rather watch smallblocks be rebuilt on Velocity TV.
You can occasionally capture lightening in a bottle. It is real tough to make that lightening to order.
I feel you are being a little hard on EJ. We don’t know his role in the show, and frankly, when he is on the podium giving interviews I breathe a sigh of relief, as F1 tries to pull in celebrities who do an abysmal job (George Lucas, Schwarzenegger, etc.) at interviewing drivers in a sport they just don’t pay attention to that much.