Nah nothing to do with that. BBC will own the title.

Although the more I think about it the more it doesn't seem a complete coincidence that they went with "The Grand Tour" ... "TG Tour".

Shakes head.

How's about

Transphobic douchebags......

Presumably they will tour the continent, visit brothels, get doses of the clap, and bring back priceless works of art for their private collections like their 19th century Grand Tour predecessors.
Sorry, it is a seriously sh1te title.

But the BBC don't own the copyright to individual words....Don't channel 5 have '5th Gear'....that's obviously been inspired by Top Gear....

I think that Clarkson is very bitter and angry that the BBC sacked him, and is itching to get as many digs in as he can regarding the BBC...

So he said it was the BBC who didn't allow certain words in the title....but I reckon in reality that it's Amazon who are treading carefully around the issue, and forcing Clarkson the behave himself. So, no sarky names, no stupid names, no rude names and so on...

The GT-TG thing is about as far as they'll let him go.

It's also really boring for someone to let bitterness and anger get the better of them, regardless of the humour that they wrap around it.

Amazon will want to avoid The Grand Tour becoming a Clarkson fueled BBC hatefest.

But given the international nature of Amazon's business....they will not want to offend anyone.

I just wonder how much their hearts are actually in it. Chris Evans looks like a kid in a sweet shop......and Clarkson is building reefs in Barbados....which is more PC than TG.

The Grand Tour....or The Grand Bore?

Amazing how a simple name leads to so much vitriol and opprobrium, when as already stated any name had to be effectively rubber-stamped by BBC lawyers.

It's a name; it fits with the traditional name for travelling around Europe & beyond primarily for entertainment, and fwiw also ties in with the umbrella name for the three main cycling events of the season - Giro d'Italia, TdF, la Vuelta. They've apparently come up with many variations and had many rejected for legal reasons. That they're fuelled by anger & bitterness at the BBC is hard to decipher based on what little they've said about their former employers, but the new series will be good, How can it not be with the same core team + a bigger budget? And in 4K too.

It's the use of anything similar in conjunction with Clarkson & Co that's not allowed contractually.

The new Amazon show sounds like they're moving perhaps too far from the TG template either by choice or necessity. Perhaps they're thinking that increased spectacle by way of the enhanced budget will be enough of a lure? If the BBC TG can get the on-screen chemistry working (even if it's just for the cameras) then I really don't see any reason why it can't bring in the same ratings and overseas sales. Observers are keen to write the obituary for scheduled broadcast TV but it's still the most widespread way people consume telly.

Is it called 'Grand Tour' or 'The Grand Tour'?

Contractually or legally?

Contractually suggests that Amazon have chosen to be ultra professional and polite.
Contractually suggests that they might have made Clarkson sign a contract to behave himself.

I very much doubt that the BBC would dare take anyone to court, partly because of the potential costs...and also with so much pressure from the Tories....and the Tory leader, Jeremy Clarkson and the Murdochs are all best friends, and some of those people are already in the middle of an unofficial campaign to undermine the BBC and everything it creates. So...the BBC are pretty much powerless.

But Amazon are an ultra professional, brilliantly efficient, and forward thinking business...one of the best in the world at the moment......and the one thing they don't want is controversy.

I would say that from a creative point of view, Amazon could easily push a few boundaries and be cheeky....But they haven't...they have been polite and professional.

And that is not the image that Clarkson has ever portrayed. Clarkson loves to poke people in the eye (metaphorically speaking). That's what we love about him.

I have no problem with the title....but it doesn't reflect the collective personality of those three presenters.

And now they are building artificial reefs using rusty cars.

And they have 160 million dollars burning a hole in their pockets..so what other polite things are Amazon going to have them do......?

.....and Matt LeBlanc is really funny!

And Chris Evans is pushing boundaries....

And all the buzz is about Top Gear....

Just sayin......

Could just as easily claim that TG are just driving a couple of Reliant 3-wheelers to Blackpool on a rainy winter's day, but that too would easily be dismissed as selective criticism.

The buzz is around TG as it's being promoted heavily ahead of its return in less than 2 weeks. Course it's in the news.

But what makes Top Gear funny is that everytime the 3-wheeler goes round a corner, it capsizes. That's it. That's the funny bit. And it repeats over and over around every corner and roundabout. You don't need 160 million dollars to be funny.

The cheapness of it was part of the charm.

And I just wonder if the spirit of Top Gear will be lost in the ocean of money and Amazon's American style professionalism.

From Clarkson's murmerings on twitter, it sounds like the stunts and projects are very big and even huge.....talk of near death experiences and so on....

Clarkson will always be funny no matter what, but he's at his best in a muddy field, getting out of a broken car, and slipping in cow poo.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

According to the logo on the Amazon homepage, its 'The Grand Tour'.

https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon....272675614_.jpg

Well we don't know how they were let go. Clarkson's contract wasn't renewed. How long did May and Hammond have left?

The BBC may have just let them out early providing they signed off that they couldn't use the words Top or Gear and some other TG regular segments in their new show.

Amazon can and probably will avoid controversy just by having the bbfc look at the show before it airs then labeling it with the rating. If it's clearly stated to be, hypothetically, 15 for language and people ignore that and complain anyway, it's hard to see that being Amazon's fault.

My worry is that they looked so tired, bored and out of ideas towards the end the "zing" that made it work could be gone and it will just be going through the motions.

I know, why don't we wait and see what each programme is like before deciding one is boring and the other is 'pushing boundaries'?

Just a thought.

Dear oh dear... are you on the right forum? You are being way too sensible and rational and reasonable about this!

No, no, you must judge the new shows long before you've seen them and slag them off as much as possible despite knowing nothing about them.
I thought that was the rule here...

Ban this nutcase!

Yes, that would've been great.

However, the prospect of a show that, in effect, sounds like it will be the Top Gear specials, but on a weekly basis, is enticing.

I've never found LeBlanc funny. Even in his Friends heyday, he came across as the one who was closest to his character. Since then, not much.

As for Evans, the only boundary he's ever pushed is how far he can pump up his enormous ego before his head explodes. I'm sure the man must have fans, but I've never actually met one.

May's and Hammond's contract expired at the end of March 2015 and they left then.

I suspect that that the exit was planned as the three presenters could then demand much larger salaries rather than Clarkson by himself.

Ah, so that's why it couldn't be Gear Knobs. Never mind, I feel sure that the new show will attract a bigger audience than Evans.

Clarkson doesn't hate the BBC, only the people who run it these days.

As for the new show being a bore, why would it be? The presenters are the same, the producer is the same, and they all know exactly what made them popular and what the public expects. The one effective difference is that now the have a much bigger budget.

Amazon UK's streaming service doesn't have that much content on it and it's highly debatable how many folk will be willing to pay £5.99 a month just for TGT.