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Top Gear Australia

We thought this latest Top Gear Australia revival by Network 10’s paid streaming service Paramount + wouldn’t get a second free-to-air window as last said earlier this yea,  but it’s now on the main free-to-air channel after all as just premiered tonight – a months later from its original first-run Paramount + screening (May). It remains to be seen if TGA will be given on-demand access on 10 Play for those who didn’t get to watch this tonight.

The only difference 10 viewers will get on Top Gear Australia is a series of commercial breaks in each episode that goes up to 90 minutes, which is the same length we get from the original UK Top Gear episodes as it was before when these UK episodes last aired on Nine.

Everything else you will see isn’t that much with dedicated motoring redhead like Blair “Moog” Joscelyne reviewing performance-road cars in a similar way Chris Harris does for the UK show. 

Alongside him is a former professional athlete & an entertainer competing in challenges with Moog alongside Beau Ryan and Jonathan LaPaglia much like how the UK last had former England all-round cricketer Andrew Flintoff & comedian/presenter Paddy McGuiness.

Also, the car they use when they bring in celebrity guests to drive around the race track is the Subaru BRZ compact sports car coupe whose identical twin Toyota 86 was last used on the UK show. And lastly, don’t know where that new race track is as it’s not the Camden Airport airfield that the original Top Gear Australia version used on SBS (Season 1 & 2) and later Nine (Seasons 3 & 4) a long time ago. But what we do know that this latest studio building is filmed in Sydney’s Cockatoo Island.

Fingers crossed to see what the ratings will be like on 10 as we don’t know if Top Gear Australia will be back for 2025.  

Yes, the original UK show is currently not on air with Season 34 already cancelled midway through production following Freddie Flintoff’s freak crash two years ago. However, it looks like they had run its course unfortunately as this show no longer has the same popularity they once had before when Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May left back in 2015-16. The show’s website may still live on but time will tell if TGA has unfinished business that would reflect well on Paramount +’s investment via 10. 

In the meantime, October has been living large with these first-run streaming shows now popping up on free-to-air – with Nine currently showing Bali 2002 (two episodes done with Episode 3 to come on Monday) & Ten doing the same with Top Gear Australia (1 done with 7 weeks to go).

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It’s been a long time coming since Top Gear was so popular worldwide when you got Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May onboard until the unexpected split nearly 10 years ago after Jeremy’s fracas with a producer saw the series go downhill ever since with multiple hosts like Friends alum Matt LeBlanc, Radio Host Chris Evans and the late Sabine Schmitz who was great at racing cars from Germany – even the final latest trio of former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff, TV personality Paddy McGuiness and Chris Harris didn’t go so well at times as none of them can really emulate the OGs.

We also had a couple of seasons with Top Gear Australia when things also didn’t go so well last time mainly when it was aired on Nine between 2010-12 despite a good start with Series 1 on SBS (who used to hold the distribution rights from the beginning) and now the show is back once more this time with a brand new trio of hosts alongside a brand new network to air these episodes that will is going to be behind a paywall on Network 10’s paid streaming platform Paramount +. You got two well-known hosts and a car enthusiast likewise with the other Top Gear shows worldwide such as Australian Survivor host and actor Jonathan LaPaglia, former Rugby League/NRL player and TV host Beau Ryan and Blair “Moog” Joscelyne.

So no Shane Jacobson (well-known actor) who moved on even though he’s always so passionate about cars as he was from the previous version on Nine last time alongside Ewen Page as well as original host across both networks Steve Pizzati.

All they will do for this instalment is travel around the world to take on some fun and difficult challenges alongside some in-studio segments at Cockatoo Island such as reviewing the latest cars & have The Stig test it out on an undisclosed race track while there will be a celebrity guest segment stopping by each episode with an interview including taking part behind the wheel (Subaru BRZ much like Toyota GT86 in the UK one) in a pre-taped lap from the same circuit. The Australian revival was originally announced at the Network 10 upfronts late last year as part of this year’s Paramount + Australian offerings with 4-5 months of filming as the premiere already launched yesterday with more weekly episodes to come in the next coming weeks.

And according to Mediaweek.com not long before the premiere, it seems we won’t have the chance to see it on Network 10 at all with no second window viewing at a later date unlike NCIS Sydney who finally made their way to free-to-air here a few days ago from its original November 2023 premiere on Paramount + worldwide and CBS in the USA. I guess it’s a show that is going to have a small following amongst car enthusiasts who love to see the best new stash of stuff on the planet rather than take it on a wider audience where most people might not be interested that much at the end of the day but understandable.

Top Gear Australia has been there, done that and unfortunately crashed and burnt when it was previously on Nine while they were they had the rights to air the original UK series a decade ago. And speaking of the UK version whose status is on hold for the time being after a series of Freddie Flintoff’s crash-prone accidents in recent years while hosting the show, Paramount + also now holds the Australian rights off Stan and you can view these latest episodes right now alongside the Australian revival.

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