Jeremy Clarkson gets shunt from US shock jock

[TurnerGTX]

Jeremy Clarkson is in danger of being left in the slow lane. NBC, the US broadcaster, has hired an outspoken, fast-talking radio “shock jock” to front the American version of Top Gear.

Adam Carolla, a Los Angeles-based comedian, boasts a CV that makes the British presenter seem like a paragon of political correctness. Carolla has managed to insult the entire population of Hawaii and is perhaps best known for co-hosting a television show epitomised by scantily clad women jumping on trampolines and performers downing cans of beer in record time.

Carolla, who at 44 bears a passing resemblance to Clarkson, 48, will be joined on the show by a professional racing driver and a television handy-man who has been hailed as a sex symbol by an American magazine.

BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, is hoping that the trio will help to cement Top Gear’s position as a multi-million-pound global brand.

As well as selling the format to NBC and making an Australian version of the show, the BBC is thought to be eyeing up a deal with a German broadcaster – raising the prospect of 200mph races along the country’s speed-limit-free autobahns.

The UK version of the show, which returns for a new series tonight on BBC2, has been licensed to more than 40 international broadcasters, turning Clarkson and his co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond into stars in countries such as Russia and Poland. The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, is a fan and the programme has a global audience of 150m.

BBC Worldwide, which has production offices in Los Angeles, has begun filming a pilot episode of the American version for NBC. It will test whether US audiences are amused by the show’s trademark stunts such as attempting to launch a Reliant Robin into space.

Carolla, a self-confessed car nut who owns several Lamborghinis, Maseratis and Ferraris, is expected to give Clarkson a run for his money when it comes to laddish behaviour.

Last month Clarkson, a Sunday Times columnist, faced calls for his sacking from Top Gear after claiming to have driven at 186mph in a tunnel through London’s Docklands.

Carolla came to prominence on a radio show called Loveline, on which he insulted Hawaiians by describing them as inbred and “the world’s dumbest people”. The show was taken off air in Hawaii and he had to apologise. He went on to create and co-host a glaringly sexist television programme called The Man Show. It featured a troupe of models known as the Juggy Dance Squad and a performer who would quaff beer while singing lewd drinking songs.

Carolla’s co-presenters are Tanner Foust and Eric Stromer. Perhaps mindful of the 288mph crash that nearly killed Hammond in 2006, programme makers chose Foust, a rally racing driver who has performed stunts in Hollywood blockbusters such as The Bourne Ultimatum.

May will be flattered to see that his US equivalent is Stromer, a DIY expert who was described by People magazine as one of the “sexiest men alive”.

Clarkson met Carolla in Los Angeles earlier this year and admits that his counterpart is much funnier. “He made me laugh a lot,” he said. “I’m not funny at all – well, not without editing.

“I can’t see any reason on earth why it [the programme] wouldn’t translate and work over there. The Office does, Simon Cowell does, Gordon Ramsay does. They’ve been working very hard to make sure they’ve got three guys where the chemistry works.”

Jay Leno, the NBC chat show host and also a Sunday Times columnist who turned down an approach to be one of the presenters, has expressed doubts.

“My great fear in America is that, for instance, if Kia was our sponsor this week, we’d have to say the car was fantastic,” he wrote earlier this year.

Full-throttle wit

Clarkson:

— We all know that small cars are good for us. But so is cod liver oil. And jogging. I want to drive around in a Terminator, not the heroine in an E M Forster novel

— I don’t often agree with the RSPCA as I believe it is an animal’s duty to be on my plate at supper time

— The Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite

Carolla:

— The greatest perk of being on TV so far has been going to strip clubs and having all the strippers recognise you

— Often success has nothing to do with talent. You look at the Spice Girls and you think, gosh, why didn’t I think of that?

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol...cle4187575.ece

[jasonof2000]

"The Man Show" wasn't THAT sexist if you realize it was tongue in cheek, hell my mom used to watch it and never complained about it and she can be a down right prude sometimes.

[stuvik]

Clarkson "left in the slow lane"? They're comparing an LA-based comedian with a love of cars with a seasoned and unhinged motoring journalist with decades of experience in the motoring industry! Apples and oranges.

I really hope TG:US is as different to TG:UK as TG:AU claim they will be. TimesOnline, shame on you for making such comparisons

[torqueless]

he wasnt always a comedian.

He briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, a junior college, where he was placed on academic probation before dropping out to work in a series of jobs, including a carpet cleaner[13], carpenter, boxing instructor,[14] traffic school instructor[15], and metal worker.

american comedy is just different from british comedy...thats all the difference is.

both of them are loud mouthed and obnoxious... and hilarious.

[CallMeRyan]

Anyone with a strong affiliation to LA doesn't compare with Jeremy.

[jayhawk]

Originally Posted by stuvik

Clarkson "left in the slow lane"? They're comparing an LA-based comedian with a love of cars with a seasoned and unhinged motoring journalist with decades of experience in the motoring industry!

Also, he was involved in the teddy bear industry for a period of time.

[airmenair]

Interesting article but I don't think May's counterpart is going to be anything like him.

[BlaRo]

Carolla has managed to insult the entire population of Hawaii

Oooh, scandalous! All 1 million Hawaiians are rioting at his doorstep!

[airmenair]

I think I recall, I believe that maybe once, Jeremy Clarkson insulted all of America. I think, he might have done it more than once...

That includes Hawaii and is alot more people, haha.

[torqueless]

most people in america have no clue who jeremy clarkson is...

[La Chaton]

Oooh, scandalous! All 1 million Hawaiians are rioting at his doorstep!

I wonder if the non-natives were insulted? I mean, most of Hawaii is just rich people who moved there from elsewhere in the US.

I think I recall, I believe that maybe once, Jeremy Clarkson insulted all of America. I think, he might have done it more than once...

That includes Hawaii and is alot more people, haha.

You do have a point there, perhaps Carolla's comment was made worse by the fact that he was insulting part of his own country...?

Getting back on topic however, I think it's rather ridiculous that they keep trying to compare the presenters to each other at all. Why do they need "counterparts"? And how come just because Clarkson's "counterpart" is more obnoxious and controversial it means Jeremy's "being left in the slow lane?"

I agree with Stuvik: apples and oranges.

[Vector]

Jeremy has insulted the Welsh, Northerners, and people from Ireland. But he does it in a tounge-in-cheek fashion, and I think Carolla actually means everything he says. He doesn't craft it into a joke so much as just coming out and saying it.

[Shawn]

This rapid globalization of the Top Gear brand is gonna be the end of our beloved show as we know it. Mark my words... it's already started to happen.

[MattD1zzl3]

As you know it yes, its like saying the rapid expansion of mcdonalds killed a plucky roadside burger reseraunt owned by two brothers.

Sometimes destruction is just another form of creation.

[La Chaton]

I don't know, I sort of like the way it's been going, but that's probably because I'm not some uber hardcore life long car nut. (Not that that's a bad thing.)
I enjoy a lot of their banter and crazy challenges which they didn't have in older eps.

[DaveTheCompGuy]

Originally Posted by Shawn

This rapid globalization of the Top Gear brand is gonna be the end of our beloved show as we know it. Mark my words... it's already started to happen.

I'm worried that you might be correct about that.

I just discovered Top Gear - but I've since grabbed every episode I could find, as well as some of the other shows the boys hosted like 20th Century and Greatest Inventions. All of it awesome stuff. A few years back I was a *huge* fan of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, from before it went over to the US. Ten years of that show were produced in the UK, then the US did the last 3 or so with Drew Carey as host... and it's gone. It was getting pretty decent ratings here but no one took it seriously.

On the other hand, Carolla is already seasoned at this. "The Man Show" in many ways was Top Gear without cars. They'd pull off some pretty cute stunts... I saw them set up a young boy with a lemonade stand - except instead of lemonade he was selling beer, and being pretty sarcastic (and obscene) with the people that objected to it.

There's a long, long history of UK shows going to the US... Till Death Do Us Part > All In The Family... Steptoe & Son > Sanford & Son... Robin's Nest > Three's Company... so sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't (Red Dwarf and Absolutely Fabulous both tried US versions and they died very quickly). Top Gear translates so well overseas, perhaps it'll work this time.

(BTW, I'm Canadian... guess you could call me 'halfway American'. I 'get' British comedy as well as American.)