The final episode of the ‘old’ Top Gear setup was aired recently, and was certainly a mood change from what we’ve come to expect, with the ‘elephant in the room’ being evident, literally.
An eerily silent and empty studio featured the two, supposedly ‘remaining’ presenters for one last time. Was this actually an episode of Top Gear, or was this simply a way of the BBC not wasting the film they’ve already made before the Clarkson ‘fracas’?
Turns out, that’s exactly what it seemed to be. Without the context of the show to break up the chaos of both films in one sitting, it felt a bit drawn out.
Hammond and May didn’t even hide the fact that they looked like they didn’t want to be there, and when wrapping the show up, they unceremoniously said thank you for watching, with the credits rolling to silence.
A huge departure from all the fanfare, applause and famous theme tune you normally get.
Top Blokes?
When the incident regarding Clarkson happened earlier this year, it became a major news story all over the world, as one of the world’s most viewed shows; remarkable really when you consider the content on paper.
When you take into consideration all the motoring shows the world over that don’t garner nearly the same reaction than Top Gear has, you realise, is it the cars, or is it that jovial friendship-chemistry between the trio that audiences have fallen for? I’d bet on the latter.
The unique thing that Top Gear always offered was entertainment first, with cars second. You could have only but a fleeting interest in motoring and would still find it enjoyable.
However, this entertainment program had increasingly disenfranchised many car fans from which the core viewership was founded upon.
Launch of a New Model
But, you have to remember how long the shows been on for, and to coin the cricketing term, ‘They’ve had a good innings’.
Has the format become a little tired? Is there room for new blood? Do they want to appeal to the real motoring enthusiast again? That seems like the logical direction for the show to go.
I for one, am optimistic about the future of (dare I say, a possibly less silly) Top Gear, as I suppose we all knew like many good things, they can’t last forever.
While Chris Evans isn’t everyone's cup of tea, I think everyone can agree that he certainly knows his stuff.
Although nothing is currently 100% confirmed, Clarkson, May & Hammond are likely to migrate to a rival broadcaster, with their own unique take on motoring journalism to continue, perhaps in a slightly different direction.
Whatever comes of it, we might even get 2 great motoring shows on telly, and wouldn’t that be something…