5th Gear New Series- Two Presenters Axed
Discussion
Bye Bye to Tim Shaw and Tom Ford
Six months after it was dropped by Five, Fifth Gear has earned a reprieve from the breaker’s yard. Two new series of everybody’s second-favourite car show have been confirmed for 2010, with a revised line-up of presenters and a new format aimed at attracting a more hardcore group of car fans.
The first show will air at the end of April, ahead of the new series of Top Gear, which is slated to start on BBC2 in the late summer.
The reborn Fifth Gear is billed as a back-to-basics car show that will ditch the live studio format in favour of more time spent on the track and road-testing cars. The change is seen as a response to Top Gear, which was criticised during the last series for appearing to be more interested in playing for laughs than testing cars.
The presenting team has been whittled down too: Tom Ford and Tim Shaw have left, leaving Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jonny Smith, Tiff Needell and Jason Plato.
The revival of Fifth Gear marks the end of a period of uncertainty. The show was dropped in 2009 because of lacklustre ratings — it struggled to attract more than 1m viewers, compared with Top Gear’s 5m average — and a fall in car advertising driven by the recession. Executives at Five said it was time to try something new.
Three months ago speculation mounted that the programme was set for a return to our televisions, but it wasn’t until last week that official details emerged. Under the terms of a new deal, the Discovery channel will buy the series and air it across its European networks, in Germany, France, eastern Europe and elsewhere, while Five retains the right to broadcast each show in Britain first.
Smith says the phrase “back by popular demand” has never been so true. “Ever since the show was reportedly dropped, I [and the other presenters] have been genuinely shocked by the uproar from viewers all over the world,” he says. “I’ve had Twitter and blog messages from Israel, Australia, Scandinavia, Canada, America and, of course, the UK, demanding the show goes on.
“It’ll be great to be back behind the wheel in Fifth Gear, especially when it will be getting televised across so many countries. Makes me want to plan a few foreign road trips to celebrate.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/news/arti...
Six months after it was dropped by Five, Fifth Gear has earned a reprieve from the breaker’s yard. Two new series of everybody’s second-favourite car show have been confirmed for 2010, with a revised line-up of presenters and a new format aimed at attracting a more hardcore group of car fans.
The first show will air at the end of April, ahead of the new series of Top Gear, which is slated to start on BBC2 in the late summer.
The reborn Fifth Gear is billed as a back-to-basics car show that will ditch the live studio format in favour of more time spent on the track and road-testing cars. The change is seen as a response to Top Gear, which was criticised during the last series for appearing to be more interested in playing for laughs than testing cars.
The presenting team has been whittled down too: Tom Ford and Tim Shaw have left, leaving Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jonny Smith, Tiff Needell and Jason Plato.
The revival of Fifth Gear marks the end of a period of uncertainty. The show was dropped in 2009 because of lacklustre ratings — it struggled to attract more than 1m viewers, compared with Top Gear’s 5m average — and a fall in car advertising driven by the recession. Executives at Five said it was time to try something new.
Three months ago speculation mounted that the programme was set for a return to our televisions, but it wasn’t until last week that official details emerged. Under the terms of a new deal, the Discovery channel will buy the series and air it across its European networks, in Germany, France, eastern Europe and elsewhere, while Five retains the right to broadcast each show in Britain first.
Smith says the phrase “back by popular demand” has never been so true. “Ever since the show was reportedly dropped, I [and the other presenters] have been genuinely shocked by the uproar from viewers all over the world,” he says. “I’ve had Twitter and blog messages from Israel, Australia, Scandinavia, Canada, America and, of course, the UK, demanding the show goes on.
“It’ll be great to be back behind the wheel in Fifth Gear, especially when it will be getting televised across so many countries. Makes me want to plan a few foreign road trips to celebrate.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/news/arti...
I'm certainly not Tiff's biggest fan when it comes to car reviews; powerslide, oooo, powerslide, but nevertheless the ethos of the show sounds like something a PHer could have written. Superb 
They do sound like they're very much trying to fill the void that's been left by Top Gear's more mainstream appeal.
They do sound like they're very much trying to fill the void that's been left by Top Gear's more mainstream appeal.
Glad to see the back of Tim Shaw, he was a complete bell end, I think they should've kept Tom Ford though as he was quite entertaining and it's good that Vikki's back on the show, never understood why they banished her to the website. Will it still be an hour long show or will they be going back to 30 minutes?
EDLT said:
Sounds like they've been reading PH.
Isn't 1 million viewers pretty good for Channel 5? I don't think TG would get 5 million viewers a week if it was on on a Monday night and had adverts every ten minutes.
C5 average 1.13million overall viewing figures - http://www.barb.co.uk/report/monthlyViewingSummaryIsn't 1 million viewers pretty good for Channel 5? I don't think TG would get 5 million viewers a week if it was on on a Monday night and had adverts every ten minutes.
This is good news.
I will be glad to see it back, but I quite like Tom Ford personally.
I still stand by my genius idea for a new Top Gear companion programme (Top Gear 2?) - 30 mins divided between road tests (not track tests) of interesting new cars and articles about legendary/significant/classic cars, presented by James May and the marvellous Jonny Smith.
I will be glad to see it back, but I quite like Tom Ford personally.
I still stand by my genius idea for a new Top Gear companion programme (Top Gear 2?) - 30 mins divided between road tests (not track tests) of interesting new cars and articles about legendary/significant/classic cars, presented by James May and the marvellous Jonny Smith.
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