Leno Turns Down NBC's Top Gear
'Tonight Show' host says in Sunday Times op-ed that an NBC remake could not live up to the original.
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/31/2008 12:49:00 PM
Jay Leno apparently has no interest in hosting an NBC version of the BBC’s Top Gear, saying after speaking with an NBC exec about it he decided to “run away from this as quickly as I can.”
Writing in the Driving section of the Sunday Times in Great Britain, Leno says he doesn’t think a direct adaptation of the show would work and that he turned down a network overture to host.
“In my mind I can just see [original Top Gear host] Jeremy [Clarkson] lambasting Americans for what they did to his show. So I think: I’ve got to run away from this as quickly as I can.”
Leno’s commentary about NBC’s handling of the show comes just days after he played the good company man and welcomed Conan O’Brien as a Tonight Show guest.
O’Brien is still slated as of now to replace Leno in 2009.
Leno said his excuse to NBC about Top Gear was that he didn’t want to make his hobby his job. But he writes that while The Office has worked here in its new form, that may not be the case unless Top Gear underwent a major overhaul.
“Jeremy and the guys are extremely talented, so maybe it would be an idea to do an American show similar to Top Gear but not with the same name, because I think it would be impossible to recreate or live up to the standards of the British show,” Leno writes.
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Of course he's entirely correct, if you have actually WATCHED the BBC version of Top Gear you would know that NO American show ever can or ever does come any where near the quality of the British version it is trying to pathetically COPY.
True is same for every show the American watered and dummied down versions do.
The Office, The Apprentice, Who wants to be a millionaire, There are so many examples it's silly to cite them all. The biggest and the best shows all come from the UK, with UK producers, American Idol the most current example. Once Americans try to take them over they screw them up.
American TV executives are universally the most uncreative and uninspired people in the industry. Jay recognizes that, NBC is going to screw this show up as they have with numerous other shows they have tried to copy without applying creative intelligence.
Spacecowboy - 4/1/2008 9:56:00 AM EDT -
Us Americans don't need an entirely new show. We could have the existing one here with some more Americans as a "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" and someone to help us understand British humor. Perhaps put some "subtitles". I don't know, but what I do know is that the more you tamper with the "Original Formula" the higher chance of screwing it up.
Rob - 4/1/2008 3:13:00 AM EDT
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