So, looks like a lot of people who hated the first episode hated it so much they came back to watch the second one to slag that off too...

And the BBC employee of the month award goes to....

It will be interesting to see the figures, I, like a lot of people I know didnt watch after the first week debacle.

Selective reading, only choosing to read anything negative to substantiate their reasons for not watching.

Judging the future of Top Gear on episode one is very narrow minded.

It won't be that interesting.

All the hype means that the figures will be up and down all series. Now that episode 2 has attracted a lot more positive comment and episode 3 will be the first to have the studio segments 'improved' then next week's figures will jump around too... and if that goes down well, then word of mouth and social media will keep the figures buoyant for eps 4, 5 and 6.

The BBC will just be interested in the figures not having fallen off a cliff, maintaining sales abroad and the general feelgood factor / potential sales position as they look towards series 2.

Enjoyed the show - especially as there was less Chris Evans - but I do wish HE'D STOP BLOODY SHOUTING. His voice just grates. Spoils the show completely for me, and I wish he would script himself some original lines instead of using all Clarkson's famous ones.

I think that's part of the joke-cum-continuity between the last CHM series and this one. They've misjudged it, so, with luck, it will start to fade away from next week.

Yes Evans is an annoying tit. But I can mentally edit his shrillness out.

Overall a vast improvement on the stumbling opening episode. The South Africa segment was excellent, as good as any similar segment over the last few series of old Top Gear imo, and I really like the idea of the three main presenters on these 'big' challenges having different companions. I assume that will be the set up. For me, it worked extremely well and brought a new freshness to just having the main presenters. I thought the added guests made for a great team. As did having Jensen Button in Evans' opening review.

Matt LeBlanc in the filmed segments is great fun and his voice overs really suit as well. I do think once he and CE settle in a more natural rapport will build.


As others have said the studio parts need tweaking and Chris Evans need to tone it down, especially with his Stig lap voice over. We have seen the Stig doing his lap countless times and it really doesn't need the voice over to try and inject excitement into it. But, I thought CE was spot on in the South Africa segment and his opening car review.

I like the gag set up that Eddie Jordan is a little incompetent and think he plays the fall guy well. (His sulking in the car raised a genuine laugh from me, as well as his delighted skipping at seeing Sharleen Spiteri )

The SIARPC segment does drag but I dont dislike the basic premise of it. Guests talking about cars, first car and all that. A little tweaking here and there is all it needs.

So, overall, a nice little episode with excellent filmed segments. To be honest, it was more hit than miss and I cant say that about the last few series of Top Gear. Helped by the added freshness of mixing up the 'big' adventure with guest companions.

Praise for Chris Evans in The Sun today

And yet here you still are, commenting in a thread about it...

Its just cars. Grown men salivating over............cars.

Yep. Totally unexpected for a car show.

Yes, because that's what blokes do

Watch the first few minutes of this week's Extra Gear. That's the REAL Chris Evans. He's actually a very sensitive and thoughtful guy and is much more interesting and enjoyable to watch when he's in that mode. He's a total petrol head.

The part where he was driving he McClaren F1 and was moved to tears by the experience was genuinely touching and should have been in the final cut.

Evans could be great if he'd stop presenting in this odd combination of Clarkson impersonation and stereotype TFI Friday style and just be Chris Evans.

He may still do that, but he needs to let his guard down.

TG rating has collapsed to 2.8m. That is a shocker!

Ep2.
Matt LeBlanc still very good, especially the non studio stuff.

Eddie Jordan, good.

Jensen Button, fantastic. Needs to find a job on this show sharpish!

Direction & Cinematography on the SA trip, as always was very good.

SIARPC segment is still awful. The track is awful and the whole interview section is diabolical. The track is too alien to the viewer. Previously we could have an understanding of what driving quickly is like, I''d hazard a guess most of us have favourite corners that are fun to go round on deserted roads or have hit bends too quickly without realising and had to fight the car a bit. A lot may also have had one of those track days as a gift where you get to drive a car under supervision for a few laps to see how quick you can go. Not many will have any experience of any rally-cross at all.
Yes it's more of an alien environment for the celebs but it risks alienating the viewer from this section.

Intro to the Stig is still too 'Kids TV'. Matt is the right bloke to do the 'Some Say' part but just leave it like that, get rid of the audience whopping & hollering and shouting "THE STIIIIIGGGG!"

And now for the biggest issue, Chris Evans. Still way too shouty (I suspect the comment about him being shouty in the intro was added this week as a two finger salute to everyone complaining about it), still too hyper and still too over the top in the studio.
His in car stuff is actually not too bad and the road trip was good. His commentary over the videos is awful though. His voice is an interruption to what are otherwise good segments. It doesn't fit with what the feel of the show should be. Everything feels like he is spoon-feeding information to the viewer. Again this is the childish vibe that just comes off from his vocal approach to things. It's like he's hosting Blue Peter or something.

This ep should have been the one that they started the series with. It was significantly better than the horrendous one shown last week, but can still be significantly improved. The way to improve it is for one of two things to happen.
Either, Evans has to pipe down and realise that his manic style is not suitable for this show. I'm sure that he is capable of using a more hushed tone, and not TFI'ing everything. His radio show doesn't seem to be as hyper so please use this voice Chris!
Or, they need to replace Evans as the main host of the show & that is unlikely to happen as he has a 3yr deal.

You have to admire the hypocrisy here. This is the poster who flatly refuses to watch anything American, yet TG has done a 180 degree turn and converted itself from a very British show that did awfully well in foreign sales to one that uses a full-on American presenter who with the best will in the world isn't the best presenter they could have found and is there purely to make up for Evans international anonymity. Still, hypocrisy and seeing everything through BBC-tinted specs is what Ash does, so we can ignore her [as usual] silly views. Maybe hearing someone say Jag-warr is suddenly a good thing, who knows?


It's car crash tv though isn't it, and there's not much up against it. Why not? It's fun to see a supposedly Top Presenter make such a hash of something like this.


I missed the start and apparently missed the best bit, but what of the rest of it?

The SA film again lacked context. Lovingly filmed, but it's missing something. The cars? 2 litre or 3 litre engines apparently, and err... a nice drive. Is that it? Is the closest we get to a sense of what these cars are about is that they're 'a nice drive'? The in-car stuff was so dull, and it all lacked any kind of fun, involvement, excitement and instead was just some people in cars struggling to make conversation. It's also so noticeable how the lone woman comes out of it so well - she spots the clingfilm trick; she's clearly better able to drive the Merc after EJ does his doh-what-a-clot-I-am face for forgetting to press the right button. Twice. The same Eddie Jordan who's raced at most levels up to F1, tested at F1 and owned a decent team. Oh yeah, men have to be portrayed as useless. That's how the advertising industry works isn't it, and we all love to see ads.

SIARXC. Everything about this segment is wrong, from awkwardly plugging each other's work, to the infantile cheering, to the pointless off-road section where Evans cheers the tiny jump and the splash. This really does need to be dropped. I realised what its biggest failing is last night. The cheap car always looked as if it was on its limit, but the Mini is a well-sorted car and even when it was being pushed hard last night, it looks slow and pedestrian. This section is too long, has too many people in it, and is just too dull. Four people queued up on the seats to chat to and Evans elicits hardly anything from any of them, and when a tinge of something decent like EJ nominating his F1 car that Schumacher made his début in Evans chops it just to force the decider. Huh? It always was the weakest part, it needs to be put out of its misery as soon as.

It's such a shame. The BBC had plenty of time to decide where to take the show. Kim Shillinglaw said that the new version would be carry the baton, yet they chose Evans of all people and the worst outcome has come true. We have a pale imitation that's now squarely aimed at the US market instead of being a British programme that drew foreign sales by the million; we have a hard-up BBC squandering millions on this and more millions on Evans (and MLB won't be cheap either) to make a very poor imitation TG By Numbers. And people are saying that it'll do, or that we'll get used to being shouted at, cheering pictures of cars or cheering cars jumping 6" in the air & splashing through a puddle. If you want to settle for second-rate second-best tv that costs top dollar, fill your boots. This second episode was about as bad as the first, and until the faults are addressed it'll continue to be second-rate second-best. The saddest thing is the apparent acceptance that after a bit we'll get used to this version, and that this becomes the new norm, the new benchmark, and that we'll be happy to say yeah it's not as good but it's ok. Is that it? We settle for "it's ok"?

Spot on and I agree completely, hes an absolute ******** all that mouthing and shouting. Matt is good but Jensen Button would make a great host and presenter.

BTW I still miss Clarkson, May and Hammond, they were the best and so professional and didnt take themselves to seriously unlike the Ginger asshole Evans.

I wonder if Evans will tweeting FACT tomorrow?


That's a serious drop, whatever anyone says.

It would help if they could do something about the echo in the studio....like line the walls with foam or something...

I don't remember so much echo in the Old Top Gear....

Maybe it's just Chris Evans higher pitched voice that makes the echo seem louder?

If they could improve that, then people would be a bit less irritated watching it.....and for me that means keeping Evans, not getting rid of him.

...and if the people who promised never to watch it, actually stopped watching it...that would be even better.

I enjoyed last nights episode a lot....again, it made me laugh, although taking celebrities out on road trips makes it difficult to build up instant rapport

I think three presenters out on road trips like before....so Chris, Matt and Sabine would be a great combination...

Interesting also, that the critics quite like the new look, albeit with reservations.

It's now just another car show, it's getting the figures that any typical car show will get in that slot.

I don't recall many saying they wouldn't watch it, but if you've spent time correlating previous posts from people who said they wouldn't and have since posted criticisms of it, good luck to you. Or are you making up an argument to fit your agenda?

...I see...that you still haven't...worked out..what an ellipsis...is for. Are you still under the impression that it makes your posts interesting, or easier to read? Sorry mate...

Nailed it. Can't argue with any of this, let's hope the BBC takes note.


Whilst I don't disagree with any of your assessment of the show, I think this is a little unfair. Yes, it is "ok" - for now - but with a little optimism, one can believe that it can (will) get an awful lot better. The whole team is still gelling and finding their feet and I don't just mean the presenters but the people involved in writing, producing and directing it. They're doing it under immense pressure too, very much in the public eye and having to follow a previous team that achieved near God-like status. It's not going to get worse, it will only improve, the question is how quickly.

I don't want to lose the show, that would be the worst outcome of all. I'd be disappointed if anyone really wanted that. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but unfortunately that's life. It sucks.

Clearly it's not CHM TG and it can't ever be. But it can still be good Sunday night entertainment and find its own niche. I'll give it longer than two episodes, so yes, it's "ok" for now but I do expect to see significant improvements episode by episode.

I'm not especially keen on Evans, at least not in this mode but I've seen and heard enough of him in the past to know that he can do grown-up and subtle. Not often, but he can do it, as skinj has said in a previous post. I think that's part of the dismay (my dismay, at least) - he's nigh-on 50 now and needs to calm down and adapt to the TG audience. He's not doing kids' TV and he's not doing radio. He doesn't need to over-egg everything and can act normally, letting the pictures do half of the work. A look, a smile, or a gesture can be as strong a message as jumping up and down and waving your arms about. It needs to be spelled out to him. We've seen glimpses, so it's in there but he needs to be made far more aware that he's now dealing with a very different type of show and a different type of audience than he's had in the past. He clearly wants to do the show - and enjoys doing it - but it's time for him to understand he needs to adapt to the show and not merely expect us to adapt to the Chris Evans way - it's simply not appropriate.

What I took away from this episode, and the SA film in particular, is that the BBC have decided that the format is king, rather than the presenters.

Whereas Clarkson, Hammond and May would have each had their solo moments on camera to talk about the good and bad points of their respective cars (plus tent time and pub time to discuss which was the best), the three presenters here did not have that opportunity - moreover they had to share the spotlight with the three celebrities throughout, giving them even less time on camera.

Thus the cars were incidental (we learned nothing about them other than their engine sizes and that they probably don't work too well off-road when not switched into off-road mode) and the presenters were incidental. But the format was intact - a vaguely competitive road trip with a nominal objective, lots of stunning scenery footage and some contrived incidents. You could have plugged any three presenters into it and got the same results.

This approach makes sense for the BBC - it will be much easier to replace one or more of the presenters if the need arises without the tumultuous upheaval that they have just undergone. The film was very well made and quite entertaining - just lacked a bit of soul for me.