I know who the Stig is, and he is the second incarnation of him. The first guy was a bloke called Perri McCarthy. Have a read of his book "Flat Out and Flat Broke". I won't say who the new Stig is though, got to keep some of the mystic. I will say for sure that it isn't Lewis Hamilton.

Hey Simonk, I'm not into cars and yet Top Gear really gets me in. It's looks gorgeous, the chemistry between Hammond, Clarkson and May as brill and they're funny in their own rights.

I wasn't inferring there was any sort of bait and switch - just the ads starting off talking about a new-look Top Gear. It just seems less than honest.

Hey dlutchy, I believe the AFL Footy Show is shot in Studio 9 at GTV9 in Richmond, VIC. It's the biggest one they have at the old piano factory.

The timing was all out for Kiss to play the end-of-year extravaganza. Maybe if they still had the pool at GTV, they could have run some staging over it for the full extent of Gene Simmons' tongue. Funny.

Well, being a bit of a Top Gear nut, I am delighted to be able to look at earlier episodes - and not repeats, thank god.

Are you guys complaining that the show has actually evolved?

Also, I think the advertising makes it pretty clear they are earlier episodes - no bait and switch about it - just a modicum of hyperbole. Situation normal.

Speaking of SBS advertising - have you noticed that in off peak times - if you remove the Station IDs, show promos & community service announcements that many of the ad breaks only feature 1 or 2 actual ads. A desperate scrape for cash, for sure.

I agreed with your comment about Kiss on the AFL Footy Show. They looked out of place and squashed.

In defence though, what other show could they have gone on. The only other variety show would have been Rove. Which hadn't started in time. I miss good variety TV. Someone should bring it back.

For a big band they did look out place and space. I assume they do the AFL Footy Show in the Channel 9 Studio.

I have been to that studio and it is a bit small. Especially when some of the floor space is taken up by studio audience.

I have never seen Kiss live but I assume they need a full stage to allow Gene Simmons tounge to fully extend. They would have been better of on the Footy Show Grand Final.

Keep up the great show.

Finally!

From memory, I won the very first Boxcutterss quiz, and now, another win, and it's only taken ... three years?

Maybe you can stick my shirt in the bag for me.

Speaking of leaving reality shows, years ago, there was a show called "Mystery in Small Town X" which was made in the US, but I don't know if it was ever shown here. I never saw it, but I followed it over the net (yes, tv by proxy).

It was a detective reallity show where the contestants had to find out clues and then answer questions and then the two people who were the most off the mark were sent to another crime scene and split up and...

...only one made it out alive...

Apparently, the other person would check out some clue and the camera would rush them from behind and kill them.

The show seemed really creepy, even just reading about it, with some strange cultish group hanging around in the background and so on.

Unfortunately, in the end, the two people left both chose the wrong answer, but they gave the prize to the one who was less wrong (ie, knew all the right answers, but got swayed and picked the wrong culprit).

Even more unfortunately, between filming the show and airing it, the winner was killed in the twin towers on September 11.

How's that for a downer ending?





Huzzah!
Chad

Re: Coulthard's comment: They replayed the 'seven kinds of shit' comment on the Ten News after, so they can't have been too annoyed about it. I did note that they snipped the 'if he doesn't apologise' bit on the replay.

There have been several incarnations of The Stig so far (according to the Wiki), so it's not out of the question that the Grand Prix winner might also be The Stig.