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Why Are The Bbc So Obsessed With Top Gear?

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youngmafbog | 09:43 Mon 26th Sep 2016 | News
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Why are they spending so much money on one person. The BBC , rightly or wrongly sacked Clarkson and thus destroyed the show so why continue to through good money after bad (Tax payers money - the licence is a tax)

Why dont they let it go and invest in something else?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3807414/Matt-LeBlanc-2m-Gear-deal-Friends-star-set-QUADRUPLE-salary-s-sole-presenter-Chris-Evans-s-departure.html
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Because TV producers stubbornly refuse to learn simple lessons, even when they are hammered home by the simple evidence of viewers stopping viewing.

In this case, the BBC has tunnel vision where Top Gear is concerned - Top Gear is a fantastically successful format which can and must live on after Clarkson and co have left it.

Here on Planet Earth, even someone like me who doesn't watch the programme can tell you that Top Gear was successful because of Clarkson and Co, not because it is a format with interchangeable presenters.

I can see that the BBC would love their scenario to be the reality, and they have a vested interest in pretending that it is, because otherwise they have to admit that their cash cow is dead.

But the reality is, this show is doomed, and as you say, they should let it go and move on.

They won't - but they should.
YMF,It's the BBC,easy to spend money when it is not your own!!.
Have a look at a programme on tonight called "Retreat",Nick Knowles being de-toxed on a Thai Island,what could possibly be interesting in that?
The BBC is obsessed with it's pc agenda, they hated Clarkeson with a vengeance and delighted in his "sacking". Then they had an oops moment and have since tried to resurrect the dead parrot with our money. The have sacrificed one of our money making franchises on their altar of leftie luvvieness and now squander our money to try and justify their peevish behaviour.
Because the format is a proven success - with the right people. So they search for the right people.
Paying for their mistakes.
They had the "right people" for the programme. Maybe that was the problem they feel that they must have the "left people".
Everhelpful - //Have a look at a programme on tonight called "Retreat",Nick Knowles being de-toxed on a Thai Island,what could possibly be interesting in that? //

That depends on whether the BBC's belief that Nick Knowles is an interesting and attractive personality, and masses of viewers will be interested in seeing him 'de-tox' is borne out in reality.

This has been the BBC's problem for a long time - they decide that 'A.N. Individual' is wonderful and the public can't get enough of them.

Sometimes this works - Terry Wogan, until even he got sick of himself and back-pedalled on his TV appearances.

More often it doesn't - Patrick Kielty, whom even the BBC had to admit was largely unlikeable, and despite its saturation of his appearances, the public refused to be force-fed and he had to be taken off.

This is the attitude that prevails - in tandem with the stubborn notion that 'formats' are what win viewers, when it is actually a combination of formats and presenters.

They are heading for another massive lesson when they try and replicate Bake-Off, which will fail for the reasons above.

If I know this free of charge, why are they using licence-payers' money to pay seven-figure salaries to people who can't seem to see what is going on?
Matt LeBlanc was a hit with viewers & I reckon viewing figures will rise again with him as frontman & with Chris "Execrable" Evans no longer part of the show.

Fingers crossed they lose Eddie "The Yawn" Jordan as well...
jno - //Because the format is a proven success - with the right people. So they search for the right people. //

Then their search is always doomed to failure.

It's obvious to anyone what presenters and a format grow together and become a complete unit.

Take away the format - the presenters may adapt, and quite probably will.

Take away the presenters, and the format dies on its bottom.

It's really not difficult - lord knows there is enough evidence out there!
1. Top Gear is a net earner for the BBC, so they don't want to let go of a cash cow.
2. The wage bill for Le Blanc is far less than they were paying Clarkson/May/Hammond
3. Even if it is not AS successful as before, it will still make the BBC plenty of money.
4. There were many people who did not watch because of Clarkson - it can win a new audience.
Not forgetting its a mega earner worldwide.
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Well thats usually the case with any 'show' BBC or not. Change the presenters and it is highly unlikely you will ever keep the original figures.

Top Gear was getting tired anyway (and yes I generally liked it) so I just cant see why they dont let it go and do something entirely different.

But I guess you are right on ths one Andy
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// Even if it is not AS successful as before, it will still make the BBC plenty of money. //

Are there any figures out on that, all we see are viewing figures but that may or may not translate into cash especially with international sales.
Andy-hughes,

Top Gear was around for 24 years before Clarkson arrived. It has had many presenters and has survived when they have left. So it will do so again. It may lose some viewers. It may attract some new viewers. It was already getting a bit stale before the 3 presenters left.
YMB,
The figure often quoted is that Top Gear makes the BBC £50million.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/11/top-gear-bbc-jeremy-clarkson

So that is a very big reason NOT to kill it off.
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I'm not convinced putting some septic in the driving position will resurrect the figures.

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Gromit, I know that and that figure was for the old popular format.

More to the point is what does it NOW make? The same?
For a change, I am going to agree wholeheartedly with you YMB !

This seems to me an obscene amount of money to pay anybody. The Beeb should be looking for other, better value ways of spending its licence fee.
yeah, I think AH has it, TG with the original presenters was the format. The format alone demonstrably doesn't cut it. Managers of film and TV all suffer from the same delusion that something worked once must also work again when re made, hence endless remakes of classic movies that flop. The suits cannot see it and never will because they are the wrong people. if they want TG to work again they have to get Jezza and co back, end of.

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