Just how much dough do the producers of Top Gear have? Seems like every third episode I see features Clarkson, May and Hammond smashing the ever-loving crap out of the automobile du jour. I’ve seen them drive a Skoda through a burning barn, put a Toyota Tundra on the roof of a building being demolished, and ram a combine harvester-turned-snowplow into a house in Norway. In the most recent episode, Clarkson and May decided to play rugby with a fleet of new Kia Cee’ds. Twelve, I think, and by the end of the show I don’t think there was a single one that didn’t need body work. In addition, they shredded a rugby field in a stadium called Twickenham, which, I surmised from context, is to rugby what Lord’s is to cricket and St. Andrew’s to golf. It was a torn-up mud puddle by the time they were done.
Not to mention how every week they’re flinging some $75,000 supercar around their track, or taking motorbikes through Vietnam or pickup trucks to the North Pole. Hell, they have a Formula One driver on staff; the show’s insurance premiums must be roughly the GDP of Botswana.
So, British Dopers, what’s the skinny? Is the show so phenomenally popular that the BBC can charge advertisers enough to give the Top Gear producers a huge wad of wonga for each ep? Or is there some jiggery-pokery going on?
I suspect that the new cars are donated or lent to the show by the companies in return for the publicity. The others, like the pickup on top of the building (one of their finest moments, in my opinion) or the motorcycles in Vietnam, are usually bargain-basement, used models.
I don’t think the vehicles would be much of a problem, but I can see the production costs adding up in other ways, like travel costs, camera trucks, and helicopters.
One of the better episodes in a while. I liked the helpful advice to all the sodium and eel salesmen who might be in need of a car.
I was wondering about the rugby ground, too. I kind of assumed that they were going to reseed the field anyway, and invited the Top Gear folks to make a pig’s breakfast of it beforehand.
P.S. Good username/post combo. You’re not James May by any chance?
It’s a hugely popular show, licensed by networks in countries around the globe. So a few thousand quid per episode in body damage isn’t a dealbreaker. The James Bond special hosted by Hammond showed the row of BMWs that were collateral damage in filming the latest Bond movie. It makes us Scots cringe to see it, but destroying a $30,000 car while filming a $300 million movie is merely an accounting entry.
Like you, I assumed the rugby season was over, and the stadium would repair the field, anyway, much the way football stadiums over here do after a motorcross or a concert or whatever. (Clarkson, if you’re reading, American football is like rugby, only without the homoeroticism.)
I’m sure you’re right about the publicity value of a *Top Gear *review to auto makers. And many of the challenges are along the lines of “buy a supercar for 1000 pounds”, so they are indeed using inexpensive vehicles. But those Cee’ds were all new, and that Toyota Hilux (Tundra, to us 'Muricans) was the one they fitted up to go to the North Pole. Had a lot of custom modifications for Artic conditions, if I remember correctly.
Great episode, though - I had forgotten about the sodium and eel salesmen bit. Very funny.That’s why I watch the show, even though I’m not particularly interested in cars, and Clarkson’s America-bashing gets a bit tiresome. (To give him his due, though, he also bashes France, Germany, Australia, Mexico - anywhere that’s not England, apparently).
I love top gear but every time they play sports with cars, I cringe. I had the same thought flit through my mind when I saw the fleet of cars line up. It started out “tame” but once Clarkson went up 2 scores it looked like everyone just said “screw it” and went full rugby with the cars. May looked legitimately pissed when Jeremy slammed into him that last time.
It’s fun to follow them all on Twitter, as they will often have conversations between each other where they constantly bicker and insult each other in exactly the same way they do on the show.
I don’t think that’s true at all. They don’t seem to respect each other’s views much, but enjoy each other’s company just fine - they spend a lot of the year in close contact and if they genuinely couldn’t stand each other that wouldn’t happen.
As for the expense of the show, it was for a time, and may still be, the BBC’s most popular show worldwide so they give it a budget to reflect that. I think Doctor Who and maybe QI now surpass it in popularity, but only just.
Interestingly they had a short road trip across California a few episodes ago, which was filmed in one spurt, then had a car test in Mexico, which was filmed separately. Next week begins a two part special of a road trip across Africa. In between those shoots for Top Gear, both James May and Richard Hammond filmed segments for their other shows*, in the US and Africa respectively, at separate times of the year again.
Why do Americans always assume that Clarkson has it in for their country? Yes, he does bash cars from other countries, as much as American cars (Mexico in particular springs to mind) if not more, how many American cars make it to the UK after all?
I can’t remember when they last reviewed a mass manufactured car from the UK. They did review the City Rover, if you can beleive them Rover denied them a review model and they trashed one they sneaked a test drive in anyway. And that was just a rebadged Indian model to boot.
Clarkson might be nostalgic about British cars, but he’s realistic about the reasons for the UK car industry vanishing and took it to task in a special of his old Motor World series.
“We rarely stay within budget. We’ll go six figures over sometimes, then we get told off. But they don’t send the bailiffs. Every show has had to go through a budget cut and we were not excluded from that, but BBC Worldwide also puts money into the show. They’re selling it to 100 countries, so we’ve got a stronger argument to go to them and say get your wallet out.”
I tried to watch the American version of Top Gear, but it was boring compared to the original. A big part of the appeal is the chemistry among the three (and Clarkson’s bluster).
I always figured Clarkson’s bit was just a shtick but he seems to be one of those people who when they get a little bit of celebrity suddenly starts thinking his opinion on world events is worth listening to. Dumb politics aside, however, I think he’s actually the core of the show. May is great (he really shines in his other shows – his “Toys” show was wonderful), but the combination of nihilism and frat humor that makes TG work is pure Clarkson.
I think the critical test that the mix of actual personalities of the three is the key to the show’s magic is demonstrated by how horrible the US version is.
The BBC actually publish a list of the tariffs they expect to pay independent producers for various sorts of programmes. I don’t know if Top Gear fits into the Entertainment or Documentary category but either way this can go up to £300k an hour (drama can go up to £900k+).
As other have pointed out Top Gear is worth a mint in overseas sales so I have no doubt they can go up towards the top end. Given this sort of money knocking the dents out of a load of Kia’s once in a 12 episode series is not a big hole in the budget! I’d be pretty certain the biggest single item in the budget will be the presenters’ fees - quite rightly given that their interaction is the thing that makes the programme. Up till last year Clarkson had a share in the company doing the worldwide marketing and pocketed several million from this as well as his actual presentation fee. Against this the cost of hardware is small beer.