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New Top Gear Format for Live Shows Is Drive-In, Already a Hit

Production on the upcoming season of the long-running series Top Gear has resumed a while back but, until recently, they’d been shooting only non-studio scenes. For the studio scenes, a new, appropriate for the times solution has been found: a drive-in audience.
Top Gear has drive-in live audience for 29th season 5 photos
Photo: Twitter / Top Gear
Top Gear has drive-in live audience for 29th seasonTop Gear has drive-in live audience for 29th seasonTop Gear has drive-in live audience for 29th seasonTop Gear has drive-in live audience for 29th season
As anyone who’s watched a single episode of the original Top Gear knows, the formula is simple: there’s a studio with some cars in it and a live audience, and the three hosts walk around the cars, stop to talk about them and watch pre-recorded segments. Given the restrictions imposed by the ongoing health crisis, this recipe was no longer viable.

Unless, of course, producers could somehow bring the entire studio outside and make sure members of the audience would maintain social distancing rules. Drive-in movie theaters offered inspiration for the new format, which has the same members of the audience bring their own cars to an outdoor studio.

Photos from the most recent shooting have been posted to the official Twitter channel, and responses in the thread indicate the new format is already a hit. It looks like both the hosts (Chris Harris, Paddy McGuinness, and Freddie Flintoff) and the audience had a blast.

In fact, those lucky attendees who got to take their car to the taping suggest producers consider extending this format when (if, better said) all this blows over and we’re allowed to host large parties indoors again. There is one possible but major obstacle to a plan like this, and the producers are well aware of it: weather in the UK isn’t exactly known for being too encouraging of outdoor activities, unless you prefer them wet and freezing.

“The audience are still here, and we’re still at Dunsfold,” the producers write in the caption on Twitter. “Just outside, hoping that for once the British weather commits to the forecast.”

Fingers crossed for good weather in Dunsfold. Top Gear returns in late 2020 or early 2021.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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