Top Gear Australia
| Top Gear Australia | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Reality television |
| Presented by |
Warren Brown Charlie Cox Steve Pizzati The Stig James Morrison Shane Jacobson Ewen Page |
| Opening theme | "Jessica" |
| Composer(s) | Dickey Betts |
| Country of origin | Australia United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 27 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
BBC Worldwide Freehand TV |
| Running time | 60 minutes (including commercials) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
SBS (2008–09) Nine Network (2010–12) |
| Picture format |
576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 29 September 2008 – 28 April 2012 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Top Gear worldwide |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Top Gear Australia is an Australian motoring reality television series, based on the British BBC series Top Gear. The programme first premiered on SBS One on 29 September 2008. A second season was ordered following the high ratings for the premiere episode and positive comments from advertisers, and the second season began broadcasting from 11 May 2009. After acquiring the rights to broadcast the UK version in 2009, the Nine Network started airing their own version of Top Gear Australia in September 2010.Top Gear Australia returned for a fourth season in 2011. The show was cancelled on 28 April 2012 due to declining ratings.
Top Gear Australia is also the name of a licensed version of the British Top Gear magazine. The Australian magazine is produced by ACP Magazines (Australian Consolidated Press). The magazine features articles from many writers including Steven Corby, Craig Jamieson, Bill Mckinnon, James Stanford, Ben Smithurst, Jason Barlow, Sam Phillip, Ollie Marriage, Dan Read and Paul Horrell.
Prior to filming SBS made an open casting call for presenters, resulting in over 4000 applications. The original hosts chosen for Top Gear Australia were cartoonist and motoring columnist Warren Brown, MotoGP commentator Charlie Cox, and race driver / driving instructor Steve Pizzati.
Marketing prior to the first episode stated that the presenters would be joined by The Stig's "Australian cousin", but in the first episode the driver was introduced as just "The Stig". Steve Pizzati suggested that The Stig have an "Australian" name, such as "Stiggo", but the other presenters refused. The season 2 opener clarified that Top Gear Australia's Stig is not intended to be the same Stig from the UK series.
On 19 December 2008, Charlie Cox announced he was leaving the program as he felt he was unable to offer enough time to the show. SBS subsequently announced that trumpeter James Morrison would be his replacement, joining Warren and Steve for season two. Morrison had previously appeared as a guest in the sixth episode.
...
Wikipedia