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posted by takyon on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the second-gear dept.

In a surprise move, former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond have signed a three-year deal with Amazon for a new motoring show. Earlier rumours suggested that the trio—who left the program earlier this year when Clarkson was let go as a consequence of punching a producer—would sign a deal with rival streaming service Netflix.

While the show being created for Amazon Prime—which requires a yearly subscription of £79 in the UK and $99 in the US—doesn't currently have a name, the company has confirmed that it will go into production shortly and launch in 2016. If you don't want Prime's free shipping, you can get Amazon Instant Video on its own with a (slightly) cheaper monthly subscription (£5.99 in the UK). The show will form part of Amazon Prime's original programming line-up, which currently includes the Steven Spielberg produced Extant, and Ridley Scott's The Man in the High Castle.

Landing the ex-Top Gear presenters, as well as ex-producer and creative force behind the show Andy Wilman, is quite the coup for Amazon. At its peak, Top Gear was the most watched factual program in the world, with a global audience of around 350 million people a year. Even if only a few of those people pay to join Prime, Amazon could be looking at making a very large sum of money.

Will you watch?


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:27PM

    by AndyTheAbsurd (3958) on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:27PM (#215988) Journal

    TFA makes a mistake - Top Gear is not a car show, or a factual show in the traditional sense. It is a comedy show in car drag, and it happens to inform you about cars along the way.

    --
    Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:59PM (#215996)

      TFA makes a mistake - Top Gear is not a car show, or a factual show in the traditional sense. It is a comedy show in car drag, and it happens to misinform you about cars along the way to destroying them, particularly if they're rare and no longer made.

      FTFY

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by gallondr00nk on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:58PM

      by gallondr00nk (392) on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:58PM (#216018)

      Agreed. I can't stand the fucking thing.

      A friend of mine summed it up as a car show whose target audience are people who drive identical Ford Focus diesels but think they're car buffs because they want a Bugatti one day.

      I remember one particular show, not long after the TVR factory in Blackpool had closed, where Clarkson put on a sombre voice and sadly stated that Britain doesn't have any car companies left. This is the same Clarkson that had mindlessly lanced pretty much everything that high volume car companies in Britain had produced since the 70's, regardless of merit.

      It's just a themed entertainment show, and a very successful one. Going on Amazon suggests that's it's pretty fucking long in the tooth now, and I doubt it'll last much longer.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:00PM (#216060)

        A friend of mine summed it up as a car show whose target audience are people who drive identical Ford Focus diesels but think they're car buffs because they want a Bugatti one day.

        Your friend is a fool. He should have kept his mouth shut - and so should you - rather than revealing this fact to the world.

        I loved Top Gear, for me it was one of the funniest semi-factual shows in existence. They don't review street cars, they review high end cars (and I skipped those bits). They went on semi-scripted scavenger hunts, completed semi-scripted skits, and argued with each other. I watched for the stunning camerawork of locations that I will likely never get to see first-hand, and the talented yet quirky (and sometimes really cool) editing. I say this as a cameraman/VT editor who works in TV.

        Taking Top Gear seriously is as wrong-headed as taking Mythbusters seriously.

        Going on Amazon suggests that's it's pretty fucking long in the tooth now, and I doubt it'll last much longer.

        Could that be simply because you haven't bothered paying attention?

        Top Gear isn't going anywhere. It's staying on the BBC with a new presenting team. Clarkson et al are going to Amazon. People will follow them because they want to see the presenters goof around, not the show.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:32PM (#215991)

    Not until reruns are free somewhere (and maybe not even then).

    + Clarkson is too much of a jerk--there used to be some funny bits, but less and less as time goes on.

    + I already boycott Amazon because of the way they bully small specialty publishers. Have never had an account with them.

    Maybe they deserve each other?

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by turgid on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:40PM

      by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:40PM (#216012) Journal

      I don't think that even Clarkson takes Clarkson seriously. It's an act. It's a self-mocking parody of old-fashioned British values i.e. bullying, sarcasm, intolerance, snobbery....

      That's why it's so funny, and I say that as a bleeding-heart lefty. I suppose it's a kind of national catharsis. It helps me look back 30-35 years and laugh at the bullies with adult eyes.

      Mind you, I boycott Amazon because of they way they treat their staff. I buy my books from Booksetc [booksetc.co.uk] nowadays.

      A couple of years ago when all the stories about how Amazon abuse their blue-collar staff came out I did some searching. I put "alternatives to amazon.com" into google and amongst other things it came up with a site called Ethical Consumer. I was not very surprised to find that Amazon are no longer the cheapest for most things.

      My theory was that the general public is so used to just going to Amazon for nearly everything, that they are able to gradually increase their prices and no one notices. Lo and behold, that's just what happened.

      Just as we "google" something to search we "amazon" our books and small purchases.

      So Amazon abuse their staff, they abuse their customers and they abuse the countries in which they do business by doing everything possible to avoid paying tax.

      They are super efficient and super ruthless.

      People need to think a bit about how and where they consume in order to stop their local economies being hollowed out and collapsing.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by romlok on Friday July 31 2015, @10:42AM

        by romlok (1241) on Friday July 31 2015, @10:42AM (#216238)

        I don't think that even Clarkson takes Clarkson seriously. It's an act. It's a self-mocking parody of old-fashioned British values i.e. bullying, sarcasm, intolerance, snobbery....

        And if his exit from the BBC is anything to go by, he is so dedicated to that role, that the performance continues long after the cameras have stopped.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by hunchentoot on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:33PM

    by hunchentoot (4874) on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:33PM (#215992)

    no

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by jdavidb on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:10PM

      by jdavidb (5690) on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:10PM (#216000) Homepage Journal
      Not really my cup of tea, but I'm loving the proliferation of original streaming television content.
      --
      ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:37PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:37PM (#216011)

        Not your cup of tea!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Touche!

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by fishybell on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:53PM

    by fishybell (3156) on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:53PM (#215995)

    I read [lmgtfy.com] that the hosts (Jeremy, et al.) had a 2-year non-compete clause in their contracts. Perhaps they found a way around this? Perhaps Amazon paid off the Beeb?

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by tempest on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:02PM

      by tempest (3050) on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:02PM (#216021)

      The non compete only applies to shows made for UK broadcasters.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:02PM (#216061)

      Yeah, as Tempest said, it's for broadcast television only. I'm not sure if it's restricted solely to the UK - I would expect that it includes foreign markets in which Top Gear is broadcast, so that'd be the US, Australia, New Zealand, pretty much anywhere there's a TV station.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:14PM (#216001)

    Fuck yeah!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:21PM (#216007)

    I've seen an episode of Top Gear. "Talent" is certainly not the right word.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:07PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:07PM (#216062)

      350 million people would disagree with you.

      Ask yourself: is it more likely that one third of a billion people spread across the world are wrong, or that you are wrong?

      Now, if you had prefaced that statement with "In my opinion..." you may have been able to argue your point.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:16PM (#216068)

        Given what most people watch on television, talent never enters into the equation. The majority is irrelevant.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2015, @03:07AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2015, @03:07AM (#216133)

        Tip: more than 350 million believe in a god, and they are all wrong.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2015, @06:07AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2015, @06:07AM (#216180)

      Talent certainly is the right word.

      Its not just the presenters, its the whole effort. Look for the great editing and creativity with just about everything. Creativity is quite rare these days. Compare at an American show and see the difference.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Techwolf on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:41PM

    by Techwolf (87) on Thursday July 30 2015, @09:41PM (#216034)

    Was this the show that trash the Telsa with false info and editing? The result was a new polisity that Telsa now has full rights to the logs before any articial or show is produced.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:11PM (#216065)

      I watched the Tesla episode a few weeks ago. From what I recall, Clarkson seemed to love it and his only real problem was the battery life. I don't know if that counts as trashing it or not.

    • (Score: 2) by lhsi on Friday July 31 2015, @07:54AM

      by lhsi (711) on Friday July 31 2015, @07:54AM (#216201) Journal

      From what I recall, Tesla had seen the show before it aired and didn't object. Later on they changed their minds and complained.

      I think the main complaint was that there was a voice over complaining about battery life and it then cut to a scene of a couple of people pushing the car off the track, and according to the logs Tesla had, the car either hadn't run out of power or it had been driving fast for a couple of hours (i.e. longer than the video suggested).

  • (Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:25PM

    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Thursday July 30 2015, @10:25PM (#216049) Journal

    The trio's immature antics amuse me, and it revolves around cars!

    Unfortunately, I'll be about an hour and a half behind the rest of the world since I'll need to wait for it to come out on torrent. As comments above have indicated, Amazon¹ isn't the most ethical business out there, and I already have Netflix. Hmm… piracy (yarr!) or giving Amazon a few bucks a month? Ethical dilemma!

    ¹ Today's fun fact: The Amazon River is named such because the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana and his men were repeatedly attacked by the Cambeba Amazon tribe for invading their hunting grounds (mention on Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]). They were driven deep into the rain forest by slavers during the 18th century, and nobody's heard from them since. The more you know!

  • (Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:16PM

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:16PM (#216069)

    I never paid to watch Top Gear on the beeb - and goodness knows I'm not against giving money to the beeb. I most certainly am not giving money to Bezos to watch the same thing.

    I'll download the shows for free when the torrents appear.