I made it about half way through. I'll try and watch the second half tonight.

They definitely should have mixed up the format, the whole thing reminded me of US TopGear, watching different people trying to shoehorn themselves into the different roles. Matt LeBlanc not only isn't funny, he seems strained, and nobody seems genuine or seems to actually be enjoying themselves. Nothing is natural.

US TopGear got better when they did away with segments that didn't work for them, the studio segments, etc. They need to go back to the drawing board here.

And as others said, Chris Evans doing a bad Jeremy Clarkson impersonation is a huge mistake. He's just annoying, weird looking. All in all...a mess

 

overall it just feels nothing like Top Gear. true Top Gear for life people like myself will tell you that the show really wasn't about all the flashy driving sequences. they definitely made it enjoyable to watch, but the real entertainment came from the three hosts getting genuinely annoyed with each other and throwing an oil tanker worth of banter back and forth. they just have a chemistry that works.

my favorite segment was frequently the news because it was about 5% news and the rest was just them roasting each other and picking on audience members when the time called. i'd be lying if i said i didn't want this new top gear to fail, but i did try to keep my mind open. keeping my eyes open was the bigger challenge though.

did anyone else notice that there was like a bit of a "yes! we won! clarkson is no more!!" attitude about the way evans presented certain bits? the BBC is obviously trying to vilify him (even more so than he's already done to himself) and cut any ties with the clarksonian era. when evans made his "we don't talk about catering on this show anymore" joke there was a bunch of audience applause noise which you just know they were forced into cheering lol... but yea i didn't even watch all of it. it was pretty crap. if anyone saw leblanc when he was on as a guest, they never would've guessed that he'd become the next host. he's funny as joey but his actual personality is just pretty blehh...

 

The Extra Gear segment was better. It had Chris Harris, one of my fav car guys, although he looked a bit subdued in the studio segments. He was so much better when behind the wheel.

 

Pretty much universal disdain and with good reason, I really hope it improves. I think pretty much everyone is expecting the Amazon show to be much, much better and it's certainly looking that way. Still, the more motoring television the better - so long as they can put up decent content (Dodge Viper? Who cares?) I'll give them a few episodes to get it right.

 

I'm awaiting the death warrant for this show.

It can't come soon enough.

 

Even if it does turn watchable, that "magic" will be gone. That's a very rare thing, the old show really became a cultural phenomenon, that doesn't happen every day and you can't really "create" that magic. It's either there or it's not.

 

The good news is that they have room to improve..... Plenty

 

Or go away quietly.

 

Currently watching the second episode. I will say the McLaren part was pretty good, but then they went to South Africa in DIESEL suv's. They raced the SUV's including a diesel F-Pace. So disappointed that rather than do fast SUV's, they used diesels.

They need to stop doing the star in a rally car. It's terrible. Absolutely terrible.Seriously. It is the majority of the show. This is ridiculous.

Overall, barely better than the first episode, but still bad. They cannot continue with the format like this. The majority of the show is the star in a rally car.

 

So having skipped through the talking segments in Episode 2, I thought it was a pretty good one! huge difference from the first. I actually really enjoyed the south africa trip...

 

The Jaguar F-Pace 3.0d V6 does 0.60mph in 5.8 sec and has 700Nm of torque. That's a quick car whatever fuel is powering it.

I watched last night and it was a lot better - I didn't at any point think it would have been better with the other 3 presenting it. Viewing figures are not bad - not as good as old Top Gear but better than when old Top Gear re-launched in 2002.

Incidentally, when Clarkson re-launched Top Gear it borrowed heavily from Chris Evans' hugely successful TFI Friday programme and he was criticized for doing a Chris Evans impression with the audience. It's funny how things come full circle. I'm not that struck on Evans as a presenter for Top Gear but Matt LeBlanc has got good reviews and he's growing into the role nicely.

 

show is fine, I will continue to watch it. Its obviously not as good as the original

 

Agreed, plus it seems like he's trying too damn hard....which makes him even more annoying.

IMO, at this point Matt LeBlanc hosting would be better....the star of the show should be the cars, not some stupid yelling, jumping Chris Evans.

 

Ratings are in for episode 2...UK viewership dropped by 50% vs episode 1:

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/06/06/t...econd-episode/

US viewership for the premier was down 27% as compared to the premier of the previous season:

http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...r-matt-leblanc

Have not bothered watching episode 2 myself yet.

 

Loving the new ratings.