Season 14 slid off track

I personally love Top Gear, no matter what they do on the show. I'll admit there are pieces that I don't like as much as others, and I find myself skipping over some parts in the episodes now when I re-watch them just to get to certain other ones (for example, series 10, episode 7: I re-watch it solely for the British Leyland cheap car challenge. I skip just about the entire rest of the show these days).

But the one thing I can say about Top Gear is that, for me, it NEVER gets old. Even the old stuff, I never get tired of it. And when they come out with the latest episode, I always watch it and watch it again.

There will always be certain races, challenges and reviews that will remain "eternally fresh" in my mind. No matter how many times I watch them, I don't get tired of them. I know what's coming and yet it still feels spontaneous.

But none of those are from Season 13 and, so far, none are from Season 14. It's to the point I'm not even downloading the SD feeds anymore to get my fix ASAP. I wait for the 720p HD release and download that, so at least if nothing else, it will look nicer.

Recently its lost something that used to be there. The spirit...its kind of gone - but I don't think that its the boys' fault, really. I've seen a lot of television shows that end up like this.

In the US, it is often between the fourth and fifth seasons. Often at that time the writing staff changes, for a variety of reasons. Contracts are up. A desire to pursue new projects. Whathaveyou. Sometimes the "fresh blood" takes the show in new, improved directions, and sometimes it changes the product to the point the audience starts to drift off.

In the case of Top Gear, the writers - JC and AW - continue to handle the writing duties 14 series and 7 years in. And as you noted, perhaps it is not so much running out of ideas as it is running out of steam.

As you and others have noted, they all have so many side-projects. Do they have the stamina for a two or three day 1000km-plus road-trip like Bolivia on Sunday? Much less a straight-shot 1000km-plus trip like the Economy Run to Blackpool?

I loved the tension of the Blackpool run. But that was 40 minutes of a trip that ran over a dozen hours. hat has to be hard on the body and the mind, even in a Jaaagggg.

But the thing is, they persevere, and that's about all that we can ask from them. Giant arguments on the internet, really, don't do anything. As Jeremy said to the art gallery dude: "I value your opinion, I won't necessarily pay any attention to it."

I'm on record as saying I'll watch it because, as many have noted, even when it's kind of lame, it's still better than so much else on the tele. And indeed, I am but one consumer of hundreds of millions, so I understand my opinion carries equivalent weight. :)
 
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You'd think if somebody disliked a TV show they'd stop watching it instead of watching every episode just so they can come onto a website dedicated to that TV show to tell everybody how much it sucks. To make matters worse the troll insists on if he dislikes the show it must mean it is being cancelled. Surprised "ban" wasn't mentioned on this thread by a moderator to be honest.


Moving onto facts for a moment Top Gear is a publicly funded show that is one of the most viewed shows on the BBC and British TV. Worldwide it is shown in 90 countries and is quoted as having anything from 350 million to a billion viewers.

The magazine has around 6 million subscribers around the planet. The sub for a years membership is about ?35 though it can be quite a bit more expensive in most other nations. Even taking the ?35 sum and multiplying it by 6 million you can see the magazine generates revenues well in excess of ?150,000,000. Take into considering that it costs more in nations other than the UK and you can probably tack on another ?50,000,000 or more.

Merchandise does well for the show and the studio is always full and studio tickets are always in significantly more demand than they can possibly fulfill.

The show has a consistent viewership(only including official sources ie BBC iPlayer and BBC itself) of between 6 and 8 million viewers and is one of the most popular and watched shows on TV. The BBC iPlayer is the BBC's online portal that is pretty popular(it has beamed close to 800 million shows to recipients) and Top Gear regularly tops that chart. This is not including all those naughty kids who use torrents(of course if your not from the UK then you have to go through torrents but a lot of young Brits download the HD version to watch it on their laptop screen.. I guess college kids shouldn't be forced to pay a TV license though so can't blame them and HD does look better so).


You can't really put Top Gears success into perspective because it is a brand not a TV show.

Even with big TV shows like Lost they rely on advertising money which basically means if an episode costs a million pounds to make they need to recuperate that by grabbing more viewers to watch the ads during ad breaks. Another way to look at it is if 10 million viewers tune into the next episode of Lost and the advertisers give them 1.8 million pounds if Lost ended up losing half of those viewers the show would be losing money.

Thats why with most TV shows they don't last very long or end up going down when they fall out of contention as their profit margins are extremely thin. That of course isn't including DVD sales and Lost is quite unique in that it has a comprehensive line of its own brand merchandise which I think does pretty well.

Top Gear on the other hand doesn't cost nearly a million per episode. A lot of Top Gear episodes really can't cost a lot. Take last week Art Expo episode. The cost of that episode couldn't have been more than 100K.

I'd wager no series of Top Gear has cost more than ?3 Million. When you consider they spent a million dollars or about half a million pound on each episode of Heroes and they've made 72 episodes there is every possibility 8 years of Top Gear has cost less than 4 of Heroes.

Then when you consider the merchandise and everything else Top Gear could probably drop to a quarter of the viewers it currently has and still do fine.

To top if all off you also have to consider another generation of motorheads is growing up. We had a family gathering a while ago and what do I find when I walk into my living room a little late from work?

10 or 12 kids from 12 to 14 sitting around watching Top Gear on my nice TV. I had to scoot in there with them and they scared the holy crap out of me because I started feeling my age(and I'm 23!). These guys were between 2 and 4 when this show came on the air!

Top Gear appeals to a wide range of ages and it is holding onto its older audience while capturing a younger audience.

This show is so overwhelmingly successful the idea of it being cancelled is ridiculous.

The tabloid reports were also misconstrued. It was never insinuated the shoe was going to be cancelled the man was put into a corner when he was basicaly asked "Will the show ever end" and his reply couldn't be "No, never" it had to be "Well of course it will end, it has to eventually".

The headline suddenly became "Top Gear to end" and people took the bait. He didn't in any form or way confirm the show is coming to an end anytime soon when asked about it.

Fact of the matter is if you dislike the show that is very well stop watching it but stop trolling and forcing your views on people who do enjoy the show.

Also stop the ridiculous assertion that since you dislike it everybody dislikes it and that means it is coming to an end.

As a show and brand it is so successful and growing with new audiences. It's pretty much at its height.
 
Seems to me that the episodes are getting stale...not to say I'm gonna stop watching or anything. I didn't have time to read this entire thread but did anyone else see/hear the similarities to last weeks Noble review and to the Carrera GT review from 2003. uhhhh.........It kinda made me sick to my stomach. It was pretty much, word for word. Blehhh...... I guess there are probably more instances where this happens with other cars as well but I happen to adore the Carrera GT :(
 
You'd think if somebody disliked a TV show they'd stop watching it instead of watching every episode just so they can come onto a website dedicated to that TV show to tell everybody how much it sucks. To make matters worse the troll insists on if he dislikes the show it must mean it is being cancelled. Surprised "ban" wasn't mentioned on this thread by a moderator to be honest.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.....

Fact of the matter is if you dislike the show that is very well stop watching it but stop trolling and forcing your views on people who do enjoy the show.

Also stop the ridiculous assertion that since you dislike it everybody dislikes it and that means it is coming to an end.

And this week's "n00b missing the point" award goes to......

None of us are saying we hate the show or that we want it to end. Nor are we going to stop watching it. If you'd read this thread properly and absorbed the fact that most of the serious posts are from long-term TG fans who are distressed at the dumbing down of the format and the fact that it feels rushed while those involved look tired and like they aren't enjoying it as much as usual.

Nor are any of suggesting for a moment that it isn't a phenomenal success. What some of us are feeling is that because of this success the very elements that made it such a great show are being stretched and diluted.

I for one was concerned when I first saw this thread that it would just deteriorate into another trollfest, but the discussion has remained for the most part civil, adult and constructive with the majority of posts reflecting the fact that we are here because we love the show and because we care.

If you can't see and appreciate that can I suggest you go back to the beginning and read it over with that thought in the back of your mind?
 
None of us are saying we hate the show or that we want it to end. Nor are we going to stop watching it.

THIS x eleventy.

(Bolded and upsized for added comprehension purposes. ;))
 
I for one was concerned when I first saw this thread that it would just deteriorate into another trollfest, but the discussion has remained for the most part civil, adult and constructive with the majority of posts reflecting the fact that we are here because we love the show and because we care.

Exactly.

This debate has lasted so long and stayed civil because the majority of people discussing it are taking the time and making the effort to put forward their views and opinions in a meaningful and constructive way and not treating it as a simple "binary" debate where the only opinions allowed are "Top Gear is great and if you don't like it don't watch!" or "Top Gear has jumped the shark and if you still like it, you're a shallow moron!".

If you're not willing to go beyond simple one-liners, then this is the wrong debate to take part in.
 
As a show and brand it is so successful and growing with new audiences. It's pretty much at its height.

Hi Andy! You thought you were going to throw us off the scent by using 'TheClarkson' as your nickname ... you can't fool us! :p

You might want to get your PA to filter through the last 18 pages and give you the gist of where we're coming from: we :wub: Top Gear, but we are worried for it (and for you and the boys). Mainly because Series 14 has come across as being made by a bunch of enthusiastic, well meaning people that are just totally shagged and need a good break.

Thanks for posting, and Seasons Greetings. ;)
 
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Here is an example of what a lot of us are talking about.

Some seasons ago they would get an idea and do their best to make it work eg amphibious cars both I and II and when they had to service their own budget supercars you could see Clarkson sweating buckets but he actually took it seriously and finished, ahead of James I might add.

Even when there was messing around the was at least a serious message behind it. Clarkson crashed a train into a Renault Espace on a level crossing but while he may have acted the goat in the build-up and the post-script the footage itself was not only awesome but enough to make you think twice about jumping the gates.

Even silliness can lead to awesome. While the "grow your own petrol" episode might have been a lot of scripted cocking about it led to the Britcar 24 hour race which showed that behind all the larking about they can work as a team and care about what they do. Clarkson's emotion at the end of that race wasn't just real it was palpable and I don't mind admitting to having tears in my eyes the first time I saw it.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a bit of mucking about en route, but to make that the focus of anything they do takes away so much from what they, as a team, are capable of. Films like the recent art expo insult our intelligence and demean all those involved in making the programme. The fact that Wilman post a mid-series blog just before that episode aired suggests to me he was more than a little embarassed about how it turned out.

To put it in a nutshell - aim for awesome, cock about while you do it for sure, but as long as the ambition is there and the effort apparent none of us will complain if the result is rubbish!
 
While the "grow your own petrol" episode might have been a lot of scripted cocking about it led to the Britcar 24 hour race which showed that behind all the larking about they can work as a team and care about what they do. Clarkson's emotion at the end of that race wasn't just real it was palpable and I don't mind admitting to having tears in my eyes the first time I saw it.

One of my favorite episodes...because they were messing about, with the "sponsors" and all...but the end still makes me get all warm and fuzzy inside.

That, and in the first Amphibious episode, when the first Toybota fell over, and Hammond was laughing like an insane man..

Pure classic Top Gear!
 
Here is an example of what a lot of us are talking about.

Some seasons ago they would get an idea and do their best to make it work eg amphibious cars both I and II and when they had to service their own budget supercars you could see Clarkson sweating buckets but he actually took it seriously and finished, ahead of James I might add.

...

To put it in a nutshell - aim for awesome, cock about while you do it for sure, but as long as the ambition is there and the effort apparent none of us will complain if the result is rubbish!

Agreed. Do you remember the days when they kept score on challenges? They use to have that score board at the end with a nice point system to see who won. I really liked that, it made it seem like the boys really tried their hardest and put in an effort to win. They stopped keeping score a while back, which is odd for a "challenge" and not knowing who the winner is. The last couple times they used the score board, it wasn't taken very seriously. Jeremy would give James -5,878 points for getting lost and Hammond -47,652 points for his choice of clothing, etc.
 
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It seems like -- and I could be wrong here -- the last cheap car challenge where they kept proper score was the British Leyland challenge. (I don't remember if that was true with the cheap/DIY police cars, but somehow I don't think so.)
 
Meh. I still like the show.

Only thing that bugged me was the "paintball in the plums" bit from last episode. It seemed really staged. I don't mean to be pretentious, I still find the odd accidental ballshot clip funny, but when it's scripted, well it seems just a bit too close to the future's #1 show as depicted in Idiocracy...

In general the humor this season seems a bit lower brow than usual, but only that last bit I felt was sort of actively instuling the intelligence of the viewer.
 
Hey, I'm a fan of "Ow, My Balls!" :lol:


...not gonna lie, it seemed really staged and overdone to me, too. We didn't need to see Jeremy writhing on the ground for that long, really. Got the point, 'kthx. I love a good whack in the balls, but it's got to be spontaneous, quick, and creatively done.
 
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Even silliness can lead to awesome. While the "grow your own petrol" episode might have been a lot of scripted cocking about it led to the Britcar 24 hour race which showed that behind all the larking about they can work as a team and care about what they do. Clarkson's emotion at the end of that race wasn't just real it was palpable and I don't mind admitting to having tears in my eyes the first time I saw it.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a bit of mucking about en route, but to make that the focus of anything they do takes away so much from what they, as a team, are capable of. Films like the recent art expo insult our intelligence and demean all those involved in making the programme. The fact that Wilman post a mid-series blog just before that episode aired suggests to me he was more than a little embarassed about how it turned out.

To put it in a nutshell - aim for awesome, cock about while you do it for sure, but as long as the ambition is there and the effort apparent none of us will complain if the result is rubbish!

Exactly! Stuff goes wrong on the way but we can see that everybody is trying to make it work, however true or not that might actually be. But to make the cocking about 'the point' of the feature and the result incidental is where it goes a bit wrong in my opnion. It's like the airport race; the point was cockng about and the result was that it made no sense, and was therefore not all that good.

Personally I don't think they're running out of ideas, I just think they're tired with the tour and the side-projects. I still stand by my solution but I won't bang on about it!
 
In my opinion, the show seems to have been turned into a farce. Blowing things up or crashing perfectly good usable cars is just stupid. The show used to provide good advice on ordinary cars as well as the supercars that hardly anyone in the world can afford.
Now that Fifth Gear has disappeared, Top Gear seems to be the only motoring programme around. The show has just gone silly & has pointless stories (ie. the art gallery one & ditching the Renault in the water :mad:) I do understand why people are starting to tune out. I'm starting to get quite bored & annoyed with it myself. :(

It would be nice to have some of the older style stories on the show but never mind, whatever happens.. happens. Nothing the everyday viewer/fanatic can do to change anything.
I guess at some point, you just have to make the decision whether to continue to watch it or not.

Thanks for reading my rant. :D
 
when they had to service their own budget supercars you could see Clarkson sweating buckets but he actually took it seriously and finished, ahead of James I might add.
Excellent point; I forgot about that segment. Who wants to bet that if they had another challenge like that today they would just fool around, sabotage James, and cut to a scene where the cars are magically fixed?
 
Can't wait for the Bolivia special in HD! Perhaps they will get back on that proverbial track, eh? ;)
 
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when they had to service their own budget supercars you could see Clarkson sweating buckets but he actually took it seriously and finished, ahead of James I might add.

That's one of my favourite James quotes "I'm quite happy here, if you'd like to sod off" :lol:

Excellent point; I forgot about that segment.

Guess who reminded MWF of it t'other day? :p It wasn't pretty (Clarkson buttcrack anyone?) but it was genuine!

Really really really hoping tonight is like that *crosses fingers, toes, and legs, and falls over*
 
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Can't wait for the Bolivia special in HD! Perhaps they will get back on that proverbial track, eh? ;)

It's why I've been withholding a high-caliber rant. Andy says to wait for the Bolivia Special; I'm willing to give him enough rope for that. If it's a failure, well, it'll be enough rope to verbally hang him with.

Why? Because I've recently realized that I have seen this pattern of behavior from a producer/showrunner before and it did not end well. I've not posted about it for the above reason... but if the Bolivia Special turns out to be more fail, well.....

And before we get the whining from the Brits about how I don't pay for the show, I do. In fact I pay more for the show than you do because I buy eps from iTunes (in addition to torrenting it.)
 
The paint ball to the groin was just so obvious it was painful to watch, I think it would actually off been better if it hadn't happened, just to shock us all, kind of a "we got you" type thing.

I am sitting here waiting for the Bolivia thing, that could be the saving grace for this season.
 
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