BBC Top Gear. Complaints after Stig shooting.

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Complaints after Top Gear Stig shooting



The BBC's 'Top Gear' is once again embroiled in controversy after the famous hosts were shown performing a drive-by shooting of The Stig.
The stunt aired on Tuesday evening (December 21) during the first of two Christmas specials, involving a trip across the US.

The episode has been slammed by some viewers and the BBC has admitted that it has received a 'considerable number' of complaints. TV regulator Ofcom has confirmed that it has also been contacted, and will investigate in due course.

The stunt follows the controversial sacking of Ben Collins as the Stig in September after he wrote a book that revealed his identity. The 'Top Gear' presenters were shown firing at a cardboard cut-out of the Stig from a moving car.


Complaints appeared on the BBC's Points of View online message board immediately after the programme was aired. One viewer said that he'd: "Turned off the programme in disgust." However, plenty of users reacted in defence of the programme.

This isn't the first time that 'Top Gear' has courted controversy. Some claim the show is deliberately engineered to garner publicity, as this controversy comes two days before the second 'Top Gear' Christmas special, on Boxing Day.


The show isn't struggling for ratings, though. Tuesday's special was watched by 5.41 million viewers - more than twice the amount that watched Jamie Oliver's Best Ever Christmas on Channel Four (2.11 million).
 
What did the Stig expect? A leaving party?

FWIW, I thought it was a good way of the presenters addressing the subject of Stig's "defection"... surely they had to refer to it somehow and this was at least a light-hearted way of doing it.

I was surprised that Hamster avoided saying "stabbed in the back" when he turned the cut-out round... I'm sure that was what he was thinking, so maybe the producers cut that bit?

Let's face it, they pretended to shoot Black Stig off an aircraft carrier. All they have done is shoot, under controlled circumstances, some cut-outs.

Lets not get serious, folks. It's only "entertainment", after all!
 
The only reason the three presenters are annoyed is because it took the attention away from their own delicate little souls....
Its a top programme that doesn't need to resort to that sh1te! IMHO
 
oh no, but it's ok for them to shoot at cars as they are driven by presenters.. to establish what car is better to escape an apache helicopter and of course who can forget which car is best to lie down in the back of and shoot out of.

this isn't a NEW stunt, they've done stuff like this before.

it was funny then, it's funny now, problem is if it's not bland politically correct beige programming then people will complain and kick up fuss.

personally i just wish these people would shut the **** up and turn over the tv, leave me to watch things like top gear and frankie boyle in peace. they can go watch the beige politically correct channel on sky
 
The OFF button and channel buttons are on the remote for a good reason. It gives you the viewer the power of choice. I use it quite regularly to avoid Eastenders where murders, rapes, robberies and arson frequently appear. I don't want to watch so I flick the switch. It is called freedom of choice! So why watch Top Gear if you don't like it? Flick the switch then you do not have to go through the trouble of complaining "Simples"

Terry
 
I think Lancebond said it pretty well. With a programme like Top Gear, you will always get people who are really excited about every single episode and those who will manage to find something that wasn't "right".

You can't satisfy everyone. As long as the majority is happy, you're good to go :)

Although, I don't know who's the right or wrong in this "The Stig vs Top Gear" battle. From what I know, it's quite obvious that it's Ben's fault....He had a contract with BBC, saying he CAN'T disclose that he's The Stig, but he did in his book.
 
Complaints after Top Gear Stig shooting

Same old story, wacky (lame) top gear boys upset someone in the quest for publicity and ratings, BBC pretends to be shocked (but was in on the plan) and much tabliod column inches are wasted.

Expect further Clarkson outburst causing someone upset half way through the series when even the die hard TG fans (mostly 8 year old boys) start to realise that TG is a bit pony and start turning off, leading to a ratings problem.

See overpaid one trick ponies...
 
Same old story, wacky (lame) top gear boys upset someone in the quest for publicity and ratings, BBC pretends to be shocked (but was in on the plan) and much tabliod column inches are wasted.

Expect further Clarkson outburst causing someone upset half way through the series when even the die hard TG fans (mostly 8 year old boys) start to realise that TG is a bit pony and start turning off, leading to a ratings problem.

See overpaid one trick ponies...

One trick ponies, for sure, but profitable ones. Its a game, and you are playing it, and losing.....

Just ignore them, as I do.

Doh, that didn;t work, did it:)
 
If Top Gear makes a profit on selling the show abroad then we get more money into the BBC coffers to produce better TV.

Like bigger explosions in Eastenders ......................

Can we lobby to have the TG team do some drive-by-shootings through Walford ?
 
TG the last word from Andy Wilman

I have posted this very revealing excerpt-almost in full- from Andy Wilman's blog written just over a year ago. In it he acknowledges many of the criticisms levelled at the program but defends it also. I have tried to highlight the negatives in bold and the positives in italics as I perceived them but judge for yourself. :dk: There are still three shows to transmit, but they’re all shot and cut now – we’re just tidying up the South America special – so it feels like a good time to reflect on the run. Personally I’ll be glad to see the back of it. We’ve done some good stuff this series, but we were too rushed and too knackered to get everything right. I’ve never ever ever seen a production team, from presenters to film crew to editors to production team, work so hard over three months, and I think only this lot could pull off what they do.
However what the viewer sees is what they see, and I notice on the interweb that there is a grumble and a rumble in the air from some of our regulars: we’ve lost the plot, we’ve disappeared up our ****s, we’re scripting everything, we’re predictable etc. so let’s deal with that.
From what I can work out, the main complaints are that there’s too much cocking about for the car lovers, and that we’re trying too hard on camera. I think, if you consider the tastes of the Final Gear folk and the TG diehards, they’d probably say we’ve only done a couple of memorable films in the last year or so – Bonneville Flats, Commie Cars, Japan Race probably.
However, although we understand the complaints, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to do anything about them. Believe me that’s not arrogance on our part, but the fact is we’re not wedding DJs taking requests, and for good reason, because no good telly in the history of man was ever created that way. You have to make the programme you want to make, and people then vote with the on or off button. So although not many on Final Gear liked the electric car, we actually loved it, and we’ll make more of those any time we get the right idea.
However when we do agree with where the viewers are coming from, then we could be in business. Personally, for example, I do believe we’ve now got the presenters playing to their TV cartoon characters a bit too much – Jezza the walking nuclear bomb, Richard the daft Norman Wisdom, and James the bumbling professor. I like those characters, but I too would like to see more of them as they were in Bonneville, or in Botswana or in the US Special. I miss the three mates who mooch along – there were flashes of it in the Lancia film, and it’s there in the South American Special, and yes, it’s nice to have it back. I know James definitely feels that way, and Jeremy and I were saying the other morning how the Lancia film was a bit of a wake up reminder that we can actually make good films just enthusing about cars.
I’d like to offer my thoughts on a few other points. Firstly, this notion that everything’s scripted. It isn’t. We went to South America with one sheet of A4, Romania with 2 or 3 sheets about the car particulars, Ice Racing the same. I think what you’re seeing with the scripted issue is partly down to the point above about playing to our cartoon characters, partly just old fashioned familiarity, but there’s also a more important issue, and that’s that you’re watching a show that’s lost its innocence. To explain, let’s go back a bit. When we started in 2002, our goal was to make a decent Top Gear, but then, and most important, organically, things took us by surprise. Nobody knew the onscreen chemistry of the trio would be so good, also, none of us saw coming where we could actually go with the films.
Rewatch the Cheap Porsches or the **** Italian Supercars film, and you’ll see what I mean. That was the first time a car show was making tv out of the cars going wrong, and you can see the surprise and delight on the presenters’ faces as it’s dawning on them, right there in the shoot, how much fun there is to be had out of crap car calamity. You, we, shared the innocence. And so it went on. The America Special wasn’t even meant to be an hour long Special – we went there to make 25 minutes, and **** happened around us – the petrol station etc etc – and again, the surprise in our own faces is visible.
That innocence has gone now, as always happens, because that’s the nature of TV. You all know the main pillars of our editorial, and we do our best to entertain, but none of us are going back to that first flush of discovery.

It’s fair to say this incarnation of Top Gear is nearer the end than the beginning, and our job is to land this plane with its dignity still intact. But ironically, that does mean trying new things to the last, even if they screw up, because, well, it means you never stopped trying.
That’s the way it is with content, but as I say, the messages that resonate for me on these web posts are the ones that say: “Can we have our three old mates back?” Well, we will still continue to build electric cars and airships, because we like doing it, but trust me, there’ll be a race the second we find one, and most important we still know how to do a Bonneville, the whole three blokes with cars mooching along, and if you don’t believe me just watch the South America special. And thank you for caring so much.
 
I think that if it had a serious competitor, Top Gear would have had to pull it's socks up a long time ago.
I still love it though- probably because I don't know anything else....
 
Must say I was surprised at the extent they went to make their contempt for him clear. If he is a vain man, I suspect he would have been lapping up all the attention.

I suppose the fact that we are now living in a media age precluded the traditional option of simply cutting him dead, but I can't help feeling they maybe revealed a little too much of themselves in the process.
 
I knew some people who have complained about it. People who have nothing better to do. I thought it was quite funny actually and perfectly harmless. The Stig broke his contractual terms and stabbed the guys in the back and went and joined fifth gear!! So i think it was pretty clever what Top Gear did here :D
 
I knew some people who have complained about it. People who have nothing better to do. I thought it was quite funny actually and perfectly harmless. The Stig broke his contractual terms and stabbed the guys in the back and went and joined fifth gear!! So i think it was pretty clever what Top Gear did here :D

They're the masters of hype, do something controversial to get people talking about latest season of lame duck series, when the viewers get bored and start complaining that it's $hite mid series, expect Clarkson to say something offensive to some minority group to get the papers talking about TG again.

They do the same thing every year.
 
I am a big fan of TG, but was not impressed today with the casting of 'baby' Stig. I wouldn't classify it as 'highly offensive', but I definitely find it tasteless and pointless - in my view anyway.

But then again perhaps that was the intention - they do seem to thrive on controversy.
 
I am a big fan of TG, but was not impressed today with the casting of 'baby' Stig.

Isn't that a bit of a double-standard though? TG regularly sets out to poke fun at all sorts of stuff. Why should borrowing the Baby Jesus story for Baby Stig be any different? :dk:

Hopefully this means they have lined up a new Stig - the show needs it.
 

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