NBC Doing It Again

I just read that NBC is looking to make an Americanized version of Top Gear. I'm not sure how successful this could be. The true appeal of the original is the hosts themselves, and how they can take something as potentially boring as describing how this car is better than that car, and turn it into an entertaining program. You can't replicate people. Something that NBC seems to try to do over and over.

As far as content...I don't know how they can do better than playing football with Toyotas, or to hold a contest to see who can best offend residents of Alabama without getting beaten up. Or simply to take a car that costs more than several very nice homes and drive it like they stole it. Especially in our litigious part of the world. And it's a given that the sponsors will have a strong say in how their products are handled on the show. Can you say a Pontiac is rubbish when they're sponsoring the program? I think not.

And we can't forget the BBC's simply incredible production values, which makes NBC's usual hokey and forced schemes seem...hokey and forced.

I know they're aiming for another hit like The Office, but I fear this will be another Coupling fiasco.