Why TopGear USA on UK television?

[Mitsuru]

There must be some mistake!!!
I turned the tv onto bbc3 to watch UK topgear only to find topgear USA.
USA version of UK topgear tasks but I don't see a USA version of capt slow!

[mr rusty]

I started to watch that- I didn't get to the end, it was dreadful! They slavishly followed the format and it just didn't work. There was no humour at all and as for the star in a car interview with Buzz Aldrin, our cat could've made more of an effort, they made Clarkson look like David Frost......they have Buzz Aldrin in the studio, a man who flew combat missions in Korea, and possibly the cleverest of the sixties astronauts, second man out of Apollo 11 and hence second onto the moon, something he has had issues with for most of his life since, and do they ask him about any of that or his current work with nasa? not a mention! They ask him what cars he's had, he lists a few, and let's see the lap now, thank you and goodbye Buzz!

When they started to explain that a Lambo has rear wheel drive I just reached for the controller.....it really was dire.

[OneCarefulOwner]

Why NOT have their version; they have ours...

[JPB]

No ta, that would be akin to having Walmart appearing on UK sites alongside good old Associated Dairies which they own and whose name they've effectively killed off elsewhere than in the UK.

[bent8rover]

Just be thankkfull it's still a BBC Worldwide product. And not a Walmart product.

[alabbasi]

I'm pretty sure that this show has been cancelled. They were trying to hard to copy something that came very naturally to the UK presenters and it did not work. Plus no show in the US would ever be critical of a car out of fear of upsetting sponsors so every car show is pretty bland.

[bent8rover]

You're not thinking of the NBC show? Yes that was canned.

This is broadcast in the US on History Channel, with two of the US presenters replaced. Now into Season 2. It's broadcast in the UK on BBC3

[rich.]

i saw a bit of it tonight, same challenges but just plain bad.

[bnicho]

They tried it in Oz too. The first format lasted two short seasons before they turfed two of the presenters (keeping one of the originals - IMHO the worst one!) and tried again. Second time round was better but still not as good as the UK version.

However, if you look at the early UK versions with Clarkson and Hammond in them, they were not great either...

[rich.]

as i couldnt face watching it all the way through do they have an american stig? or an austrailian one either??