Top Gear Australia

When I saw there was a new Top Gear Australia with all new hosts I had high hopes but sadly I was let down immediately!

The new hosts unfortunately are little improvement over their former collegues with all of the same problems.

Firstly there is no chemistry between the three of them. Their banter is that of uninformed drunk idiots at a party. Throwing our random comments of little intellignce that just dont gel with one another, they dont inform and they certainly dont entertain.

I only kept watching because i wanted to see the latest cars and innovations but the cast dont seem to know anything about cars or even how to drive them well!

I found myself fast forwarding a lot or turning the sound off so I didn't have to listen to their crap commentary.

I'm going back to rewatch the 3 original british boys weave their magic. Their re-runs certainly beat this rubbish.

The presenters are just not funny. The main guy is OK but the other two are just terrible. They they speak they try way to hard to be cool as if they are better than the UK crew. They are horribly wrong. The worst thing about them is that they THINK they are funny. They laugh at the littlest things they do. While the rest of us are sitting there with our pet crickets.

Now on to the show itself, too much budget went into this show you can tell by the way the presenters do the test driving and challenges. Every time they do the doughnut burning those tires it makes me want to weep. Every time they crash a nice new car into something, my heart tightens. They have absolutely no respect for the cars they drive.

AND They almost always use new cars in their challenges which IMO is stupid. 80% of my love for Top Gear IS their old junk challenges. Top Gear Australia is a huge disappointment. Major modifications needed.

My review is based on TG Australia First Season.

I've stuck to the CHM era of Top Gear pretty much my whole life, thinking every other variation or era of the show simply wasn't good. True for the most part, but after giving the 2024 reboot of Top Gear Australia a chance, I'd say it comes fairly close to the old Top Gear we love. That's not to say it's perfect, it still has some faults, but for what it is it's pretty entertaining. My only real complaint so far is how the humour is sometimes, not all of the time, a little forced feeling. But not every joke comes off that way, so it doesn't derail the program like some of the Evans era humour does.

I don't think Top Gear Australia can serve as a full replacement for classic TG. That show was unbeatable lightning in a bottle. But as a new, fresh edition of an old format, it's pretty alright. Fun to watch alongside the oldies or for something a little different.

With great expectation I awaited the arrival of our home grown version of a wonderfully entertaining programme. Lo and behold what we got was a gallingly scripted piece of bile. Sure looking at cars that we can purchase here was interesting, prob more so than the exotic versions tested by the English counterpart, there however ended the enjoyment. Where did they dredge these presenters (well two of them anyway) up from, Charlie COOK, the Jeremy wannabe, without any presence, any semblance of humor, quite frankly he would be better suited to hosting one of those makeup shows gracing our screens mid morning. Steve Pizzati is immensely annoying, and dare I say it, that is prob his most redeeming feature. He constantly clamors for camera time, interrupting the others with feeble attempts at humor, then having the audacity to laugh at the unfunniest of unfunny jokes. Is that whining voice of his natural, surely not. I found Warren to be the most likable of these characters, shark stunt aside. On the face of it he appears to be the only candidate available with an ability to ad-lib. I can only hope that when a pecking order is established within this trio that they can then stop competing with each other. "What were they thinking" is original, and prob should be explored further on the programme. I know it is early days and I sincerely hope that these issues are addressed, if not this show could be destined for the "also rans" bin very quickly, a shame given the lack of a decent motoring show in this country since the halcyon days of "Torque" with Peter Wherret

Im glad there is some people sticking up for this show here.

At the same time i am saddened by all the bashing and comparison to TG UK by these "armchair" critics.

Do you have any comprehension if the budget per EP for TG UK? Its either 1 or 2 MILLION UKP per ep! I doubt you will find ANY Australian show with such a budget, especially not on a channel like SBS! On the same note, the amount of footage that ends up on the cutting room floor for TG UK is as astronomical as the budget, its like 100 or 200:1 For those that do not understand that means for every one minute of footage aired there is over 100 minutes shot, this all costs money and is HUGELY relevant to the quality of the show.

To put it simply SBS do not, and most likely never will have the time,money or resources to so what the BBC do for TG UK, so to compare the two is HUGELY unfair.

I agree our Top Gear is not anything flash just yet, but i have seen a lot worse shows on Aussie TV. Im sure given some time for the cast,crew and writers to all get used to the job it will improve, and hopefully some advertising income will increase production values.

I have no doubt the vast majority of the current budget is being spent just to secure the rights to use the name.

Lots of room for improvement yes, but please don't bash it so much and give it a chance. And as hard as it is don's try to put it up against the mega budget UK incarnation, its just not fair.