They end up casting a guy who drives a Toyota Camry Hybrid and is one of People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive," a distinction that is not on my résumé. By all accounts, the pilot turns out quite well. The show is rumored for the fall 2008 schedule, then as a spring replacement. Ultimately, NBC announces that it won't be making the show. On his radio program, Carolla likens the situation to a rich guy who commissions an expensive portrait of his wife, sees it executed exactly as he wishes, then stashes it in the basement, never to be seen again. Meanwhile, NBC airs Howie Mandel's Howie Do It.
So Top Gear in America is in limbo once again. There are lots of theories as to why it keeps running aground, but I suspect that the issue is larger than casting decisions or which broadcasting entity is calling the shots. The bigger problem is TV's marginalization of cars in general. Millions of people read car magazines, and millions of people love cars. And yet, judging by TV programming, you'd think cars were some esoteric topic on the plane of, say, speargun hunting. (Actually, it's easier to find a show about speargun hunting - Speargun Hunter, on the Outdoor Channel.) Based on a perusal of the local TV listings, you'd think that everyone owns a bass boat and nobody has a car.
There's a broadcasting vacuum when it comes to cars. They seem fundamentally misunderstood. Cars are not Knight Rider, nor Pimp My Ride, nor Overhaulin'. Cars are a basic underpinning of modern life - whether you own one or not - and as such can be a premise for a smart show that can use the concept of mobility as a springboard for all sorts of clever ideas. That's what Top Gear understands and, so far, no other show in the U.S. really does. Absent Top Gear, there's room for something to fill that vacuum. I'm going to keep trying.