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Television Entertainment

Jeremy Clarkson's Amazon Show To Be Called The Grand Tour (theguardian.com) 145

Posted by msmash from the the-grand-tour-fans dept.
Jasper Jackson and Dugald Baird, writing for The Guardian: Amazon's new motoring show starring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May will be called The Grand Tour. In a statement, the former Top Gear trio thanked fans for taking the time to send in their suggestions for the name, which they said were "much appreciated". "Thing is," said Clarkson, "we'll be travelling the world hosting each episode in a different country, from a giant tent. It's a sort of 'grand tour', if you like. So we've decided to call it The Grand Tour." May said he was underwhelmed by the name. "I wanted to call it 'Nigel', or 'Roger'," he said. "We needed a name, and they're names." Hammond was more positive. "I already love camping," he said. "But this is something else. We are like our pioneering and prospecting forebears, sallying forth into a new frontier of broadcasting, and making our home where."
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Jeremy Clarkson's Amazon Show To Be Called The Grand Tour More

Jeremy Clarkson's Amazon Show To Be Called The Grand Tour

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    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by funwithBSD ( 245349 )

      Or Boaty McBoatface.

      On second thought, maybe Jagy McJagface.

    • (re; subject: see subject)

    • The 160,000 Grand Tour. http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-... [mirror.co.uk]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Misagon ( 1135 )

      I liked "Ace Biscuit", that James May had suggested.

    • Re:I dunno; I kind of like "Nigel" better. (Score:4, Funny)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @10:18AM (#52090619) Homepage Journal

      Considering Clarkson's record on international diplomacy and pissing off the natives, is a world tour really a good idea? Sounds like they are just trying to cause trouble so people watch it.

      • He's harmless (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @10:32AM (#52090707)

        Considering Clarkson's record on international diplomacy and pissing off the natives, is a world tour really a good idea?

        He only pisses off the natives that were already pissed off before he got there. Particularly those who lack any sort of sense of humor, perspective or ability to laugh at themselves.

        • Re:He's harmless (Score:4, Informative)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @05:19PM (#52094067) Homepage Journal

          Nah, he's just a troll, always looking to push the limits. Either that or he's a complete idiot or he knew that using racist slurs on TV would land him in hot water and intended to do it. It's in the Ofcom guidelines, and I would assume the BBC contract and manuals. It's his job to know that stuff.

          Are streaming services covered by Ofcom? Maybe he figures that he can get away with it now, which is a shame because it kinda screws things up for other British people going abroad.

      • How many times did he genuinely piss off the natives, other than in Argentina (the Alabama "attack" was clearly fake, for those who haven't figured it out yet)?

        Clarkson's Motorworld [youtube.com] series shows he can probably pull something like this off, dropping in May and Hammond (with proven chemistry) to fill out the hour.

        • India.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by 8086 ( 705094 )
            I've watched every season of the new Top Gear and about half of the old ones and always dreamt of the day when Top Gear would come to my city in India. They did, but I wasn't there, and their coverage was overwhelmingly negative. Highly disappointing. The first shot of my city is a video of someone pissing on the street. That's like introducing NYC by showing a crackhead smoking openly on the subway.

            Jeremy being himself was highly inconsiderate with people's lunchboxes in Mumbai, but that wasn't offensi

      • It sounds to me like they are focusing on the part of Top Gear I liked the least.
        There were a few gems but I could have done without most of them.

      • Hey i just got an idea... Clarkson vs Trump. You know you want to see it.

    • Re:I dunno; I kind of like "Nigel" better. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @10:38AM (#52090747)

      "Idiot Abroad" was already taken.

    • Re:I dunno; I kind of like "Nigel" better. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by stealth_finger ( 1809752 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @11:26AM (#52091153)
      Bah! They should've gone with Gear Knobs, it's motoring related, self mocking and kinda close but no too close to the old name

      • The "knobs" reference will not work in the US, though.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by henni16 ( 586412 )

        IIRC they decided against using any name with "gear" in it for legal reasons.
        I guess there could've been trademark issues based on a fear of people confusing the two shows, if the trademarked titles are too close in addition(!) to the moderators and the general topic being the same.

        I'm pretty sure I've read about trademark lawsuits based on flimsier similarity/confusion arguments.

        • Yeah but there's another show on channel 5 called fifth gear which is a lot closer and they haven't ever said anything about that. I don't think the beeb would really have a leg to stand on if they tried to go after them for using the word gear.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dave420 ( 699308 )

            Of course they would. It's quite likely Clarkson is prohibited from being associated with any motoring TV show with "top" or "gear" in its name, and that that would have been in his contract from before he was kicked off the show. That Channel 5 has "Fifth Gear" doesn't matter, as Clarkson is not involved with it. See the difference?

            • Not really. IF there's a provision he's already signed and agreed saying HE and possibly the other two won't then then they might have a breach of agreement on him if they did that depending on the specifics of the terms. He's no longer under contract with them so it would only be for an x years thing anyway. But on a copyrights naming ground they don't have shit if they left fifth gear alone for so long. So yeah, if it's in a contact then fair enough but otherwise they can't claim the words top or gear.

              R

    • Re:I dunno; I kind of like "Nigel" better. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Coisiche ( 2000870 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @01:57PM (#52092401)

      The best suggestion for a name that I saw was "The Whacky Racists". Top marks to the person that came up with that.

  • Seriously, they took 6 months to come up with this name? Doesn't bode well for the rest of the show.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Maybe they devoted all their efforts to coming up with exciting new ways to be old, unoriginal and unfunny.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      No, they took 6 months to come up with the format of the show, figure out the logistics of filming it, and presumably start filming it. Now it's time to start hyping it in preparation of starting to air it later this year, thus they announce the name.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Seriously, they took 6 months to come up with this name? Doesn't bode well for the rest of the show.

      Maybe they needed to agree to discard all the alternatives. Also they needed to figure out precisely what they planned on doing and calling it a tour isn't obvious until they figured they really would be in a new location each week. Most of Top Gear took place at the same location with the same test track. If they wanted to copy that, then tour would make no sense at all.

      Last but not least, we don't know if they decided on the name long ago, but they could not say it publicly before they were given the ok t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DaHat ( 247651 )

        Given that Top Gear UK returns this month, it's also quite plausible they (Grand Tour) opted to try to steal some of their thunder.

        • From the sound of the chaos going on at Top Gear, that show is its own worst enemy and will probably manage to implode and take the whole of the BBC with it.

          Amazon's show has no need to steal thunder.

          • They should just start airing the American Top Gear on BBC. I'm sure the brits would love the witty comedy of... whathisname, and the way he's always... well, you know. they also have that other guy. HE'S a hoot. I think. i forget what he said but i heard it made a few people chuckle. or maybe the main guy said it. I dunno, i couldnt tell what made any of them different or why the producers thought they had good chemistry.

  • Carry McCarface (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Just saying.
    Carry McCarface.

  • RSS Sir Richard Attenborough (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Whatever they decided to call it, its going to be call the "Sir Richard Attenborough Show" because that's how the world works now.

    I voted for "Punchy Mc Lazy Shit Face", but they wouldn't let that name be used.

  • Marketer 1: "Jeremy Clarkson is a Star."

    Marketer 2: "And their on a Trek."

    Marketer 1: "Starrrr.... "

    Marketer 2: "Trrrrek.... "

    Together: "Star Trek!!"

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Hognoxious ( 631665 )

      Legal officer: "Don't be so bloody stupid, we'd totally get sued. And by the way, I think you mean they're."

  • Who Cares? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @10:08AM (#52090549) Homepage Journal

    All we want to know is when it will hit Prime. What it's named is as uninteresting as watching Top Gear now that these three aren't on it.

    • Wait, the BBC decided to continue Top Gear with new hosts? Why?!

      • Re:Who Cares? (Score:4, Informative)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @10:29AM (#52090685) Homepage Journal

        Wait, the BBC decided to continue Top Gear with new hosts? Why?!

        Because Top Gear was their most successful program by a wide margin, even given the success of Downton Abbey. If they can recapture even a quarter of their original viewership, it will still be one of their most successful programs.

        I think they completely failed at choosing their hosts, though. Like, across the board failed. They made zero good decisions.

        • Eh, Sabine was a good choice for a car host. Not really the most British though... But yeah, I see the new hosts being a flop.

        • Wait, the BBC decided to continue Top Gear with new hosts? Why?!

          Because Top Gear was their most successful program by a wide margin, even given the success of Downton Abbey. If they can recapture even a quarter of their original viewership, it will still be one of their most successful programs.

          I think they completely failed at choosing their hosts, though. Like, across the board failed. They made zero good decisions.

          I'd have to disagree with that. I kind of like Sabine Schmitz, her circuit of the Nuremberg ring in in that Fort Transit van [youtube.com] was simply awesome. She didn't beat Clarkson's time in that van like she promised but she came close enough. She was 47 seconds faster in the Jag and only 9 seconds slower in the Transit which was enough to make Clarkson look like a third rate driver (him and a whole bunch of machos in sports cars who got overtaken along the way by a little German woman in a Transit van) and even Clar

          • Sabine Schmitz is definitely a good driver. And she was entertaining in the Top Gear segments featuring her. But can she carry the whole show as a presenter? It's one thing to be entertaining in a segment. It's another thing to present the whole show... repeatedly over the season/series... and remain as entertaining.

            And Schmitz would pretty much have to carry the whole show herself. The Stig doesn't talk. Chris Evans is okay for a bit, but gets tedious after about ten minutes. Joey from Friends... no

            • It's one thing to be entertaining in a segment. It's another thing to present the whole show... repeatedly over the season/series... and remain as entertaining.

              This is my concern as well. Sabine Schmidt is definitely a fantastic driver, and that was never at issue. It's whether she can be continually engaging on an English-language "car show" that is at issue.

              Joey from Friends... not only is he completely out of place, but is there anyone from that pantheon who is *not* totally insipid?

              It's hard to tell, because I've only ever seen any of them in completely insipid roles. Typecasting, I guess. Once you've been in Friends, everyone wants you to be cute and cuddly and nonthreatening forever.

        • Re:Who Cares? (Score:4, Informative)

          by Maritz ( 1829006 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @11:25AM (#52091141)
          Downton Abbey was ITV.

          • Downton Abbey was ITV.

            Well, given that I have never watched it and hopefully never will, there's no reason for me to know that. It comes through Masterpiece here, and most of the British programming on that is from the BBC.

            If that show is on ITV then that's all the more reason to keep Top Gear going.

        • How about waiting till you see what they do before passing judgement. All a prejudgement indicates is a lack of imagination. Top Gear is going to be different from what it was before. All three of these persenters have been entertaining in the past in different situations. It's entirely unknown how they will work here, together, in the new format.

          And don't forget that an awful lot of the success of Top Gear was the producers and the writers. Presenters are not even half of what makes for a good or a bad sho

          • How about waiting till you see what they do before passing judgement.

            Actually, I just noticed that they actually did pick up Chris Harris, so maybe adding in more hosts will be a way for them to get enough personality into the show. I haven't been paying much attention since the crappy first trailer. I'm not that impressed with the new one either, though.

      • Because it was popular before Clarkson et al (for 25 years, no less) and stands a decent chance of being popular again, and this time with a wider audience.

        • Because it was popular before Clarkson et al (for 25 years, no less) and stands a decent chance of being popular again, and this time with a wider audience.

          Given how successful the show was I think your notion of it appealing to an even wider audience is wishful thinking. The audience was already incredibly wide. Even people like my sister who could not care less about cars found the show entertaining.

          The show has been on air in various incarnations since 1977 but it wasn't a breakout hit until 2002 when they found the combination of Clarkson, May and Hammond. I'm sure it will soldier on but it's going to be difficult to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

        • It was "popular before Clarkson" like The Daily Show was popular before Jon Stewart.

          "and this time with a wider audience"

          Yeah... probably not. Here's the thing: Before CHM, Top Gear had a modest following. Then CH came in with Wilman and completely revamped the show. They brought on M not long after and the chemistry between the three turned it into literally the most watched "factual" program in the world. People around the world didn't watch it because it was a car show with an ensemble cast, they wa

      • The show was on for 24 years before Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May joined the show. It will go on without them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I dunno, I'm willing to give the new Top Gear a chance. I hate Evans, but then I hated Clarkson too. It was May and Hammond who carried it, and maybe the other new presenters will carry Evans.

      • Chemistry and strong takes (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @10:55AM (#52090869)

        It was May and Hammond who carried it, and maybe the other new presenters will carry Evans.

        Jeremy was undeniably the star of the show but not in the usual sense. What really made the show work was the chemistry between all three of them. Jeremy was kind of a first among equals but take away May and Hammond and it just didn't work as well. That's a hard thing to replicate. Take the US version of Top Gear. All three of the hosts aren't Ferrera, Foust and Wood are all fine individually but they simply don't have the same chemistry as Clarkson, May and Hammond and the show simply isn't as good as a result.

        The other thing that made Top Gear work and I think Clarkson was the driving force behind is because they didn't pull a lot of punches. Whether you agreed with their take on something or not, they definitely HAD a take and didn't seem to hold back much. Clarkson seems to be the driving force behind that. If they thought some million dollar supercar was crap, they said so. They didn't pretend to be fair, or objective or even competent but they did seem to say what they thought. Frankly their negative reviews were usually more interesting than their positive ones. Other shows like the US Top Gear version seem to be more hesitant to give a bad review, presumably for fear of pissing off advertisers or incurring lawsuits. But without those strong takes the show just isn't as good.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Kagato ( 116051 )

          I think that Chemistry was the outright distain they had for each other's opinions. It worked and I think it's missing in the US version of the show.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GNious ( 953874 )

        Yes, Matt LeBlanc will carry the show .... /me coughs gently

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Kagato ( 116051 )

          I think LaBlanc will come off better on the show than Evans. LaBlanc seems like an actual car guy and he's got no problem with having his ego take a back seat for some self deprecating humor.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Look up Chris Harris (one of the new presenters) up on Youtube, honestly this guy was born to present TopGear. So glad the old trio are off

      • I am willing to try watching it, because it can still be a good show even if it's not as good, or different, or whatever. But they had better options out there, and gave them a miss.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      All we want to know is when it will hit Prime

      You know what I don't get? I don't get why Amazon's videos are limited in distribution to US and UK.

      I get why Prime Video is US only - most of the content Amazon has to license and those licenses are geo-blocked. But considering Amazon is producing the show, they own the content and thus the worldwide distribution rights. But Amazon doesn't make it available. Even as a dim perk for those with Prime.

      That would be like Netflix geo-restricting the content they produ

  • They should have called it Frank. Then at the end of each review they could say, "To be frank...", and give their synopsis.

  • I was rather partial to... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Gojira Shipi-Taro ( 465802 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @10:45AM (#52090789) Homepage

    Punchy Jezza's Driving Circus

  • Think about it (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @11:02AM (#52090925)

    Grand Tour (GT). Its an obvious comeback against Top Gear (TG).

  • would be a bit more fitting for Mr. - I'm annoyed like Christian Bale on set but I don't bark, I beat - Clarkson.

  • I like it. Ties into cars quite neatly. (Score:3)

    by TigerPlish ( 174064 ) on Wednesday May 11, 2016 @12:54PM (#52091823)

    A Grand Touring car is a sporty, medium to large car that can nip you from Italy to Scotland, or from Florida to Alaska, in posh, comfortable style, and where possible, much throttle-induced hooning silliness.

    Think Aston Martin, think big Ferrari like a 599 or F12 or FF.

    Do people still do the traditional Grand Tour of Europe? Used to be a 'thing' to do after high school and before college.

    • Now it's called a 'Gap Year' as what's left of the Middle Class can't really afford 'Grand' anything anymore.

  • I could have swore I read they were naming it 'Gear Knobs', which would have been perfect.

  • With the limited availability of Amazon Prime video this show is going to set new standards for piracy.

    ...laura

  • I've not subscribed to any video streaming services before but this is the only show that could do it. I'm looking forward to it.

  • This name pattern just works.

  • The arsehole is an arsehole, and I won't pay on penny to support the arsehole.

    I wouldn't even pay to watch him being gang-banged in a jail then flayed alive. (Though I might pirate the video.)

  • Why is an article about a bellend who does car shows on /. ?

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