Skip to main content

Amazon’s Top Gear competitor finally gets a name

the grand tour top gear fracas
The former Top Gear boys have finally come up with a name for their eagerly awaited Amazon Prime car show.

After much speculation, the trio have settled with The Grand Tour, supposedly because each show will be presented from different locations around the world.

“We’ll be travelling the world hosting each episode in a different country, from a giant tent,” Jeremy Clarkson said. “It’s a sort of ‘grand tour,’ if you like. So we’ve decided to call it The Grand Tour.”

Fellow presenter James May joked in a statement that he wanted to called it Nigel or Roger. “We needed a name, and they’re names,” the presenter quipped.

Richard Hammond, meanwhile, said he was looking forward to all the traveling because “I already love camping.”

Like the old Top Gear show, The Grand Tour is set to include pre-recorded segments filmed in various locations around the world. However, whereas the former show’s studio portions were shot inside an adapted aircraft hangar near London, the new Amazon Prime car show will move from country to country, giving local gearheads the chance to come along and be part of the audience

Amazon inked a deal with Clarkson, Hammond, and May after the BBC fired Clarkson from Top Gear last year following a bust-up with one of the show’s producers. Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said the deal turned out to be “very, very, very expensive” for his company, with some reports suggesting the e-commerce giant paid $250 million for 36 episodes over three years.

The Grand Tour is set to start airing in the fall, with a specific date yet to be announced. Meanwhile, the BBC’s revamped Top Gear, hosted by British media personality Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc, among others, is set to hit TV screens on May 29.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Everything coming to Amazon Prime Video in July 2023
Two men look at each other in Good Omens season 2.

We've reached the middle point of the summer season and the year, but Amazon's streaming service is determined to get you to stay in the house. Prime Video's July 2023 programming slate offers a diverse slate of genres: sci-fi movies, comedies, romance films, dramas, stand-up specials, and even a show about the eternal battle between good and evil.

The list of new arrivals throughout the month features quite a few noteworthy additions to the Prime Video library, including the new season of Good Omens starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen, the horror series The Haunting of Dolores Roach, and The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Read more
Amazon reportedly considering ad-supported tier for Prime Video
The Amazon Prime Video app icon on Roku.

Amazon could be close to launching an ad-supported tier for its Prime Video service, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday.

People familiar with the proposed plan said talks on the matter have been continuing for several weeks, though are described as still being in the early stages.

Read more
Amazon Freevee’s Jury Duty gets a cast commentary in June

In the streaming era, original shows and movies don't tend to get DVD and Blu-ray-style extras. But there are some exceptions to the rule. Amazon has announced that the Freevee original comedy series, Jury Duty, will get a new cast commentary in June that will be included in all eight episodes.

Director Jake Szymanski will be joined by cast members James Marsden, Ronald Gladden, Mekki Leeper, Cassandra Blair, and Maria Russell as they share their thoughts on the series and what went on behind the scenes. But for our readers, we really want to hear from Gladden since he was the unexpected "lead" in a show that turned out to be about him.

Read more