The Grand Tour Success Prompts Netflix To Consider Their Own Car Show

It’s no secret that The Grand Tour has been a massive success for Amazon, becoming its most watched original program and bringing in a flurry of new Prime subscribers across an expansion to nearly 200 countries. Netflix, which lost the bid for The Grand Tour, is now looking to launch their own global car show as part of a new initiative to put out 20 new reality TV shows in 2017.

According to a report by Bloomberg, a car show is definitely in the works for Netflix. With The Grand Tour having a massive global reach, Netflix is interested in making it’s own car program with multiple versions for different countries, much like the various international version of Top Gear.

Last November, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos pursued the show, but ended up deciding it ultimately was not worth what Amazon paid. Says Sarandos:

“We made a play for that show, definitely. But we’ve had every season of ‘Top Gear’ on Netflix in most territories in the world, so we had a better sense than most of what the audience was for ‘Top Gear’ on our platform. We knew what it was worth.”

Regardless, Netflix seems to be serious about creating their own automotive themed show, but it’s not going to be without its own challenges. If it’s anything we learned in the past year, its that any auto related show that involves car tests, challenges, and a collections of hosts will inevitably be compared to, and fall short of, Jeremy, James, and Richard. Top Gear relaunched with Series 23 to much critical beratement. When US Top Gear launched, it was pretty much critically panned for not being Jeremy, James, and Richard.

Other cars shows exist, but depending on what format Netflix decides to use, it will most likely be compared to The Grand Tour/Top Gear. That’s a lot live up to, honestly, and I’m finding it hard to imagine any amount of star power driving memories of the boys out of viewers’ minds.

On the flipside, however, I will always welcome new car shows. I love cars too much to turn my nose up at different programs, and with The Grand Tour and Top Gear already being two of my most enjoyed programs (yes, even Series 23), I’m genuinely curious to see what Netflix has in store. There can never be too many car show in my mind, so bring it on, Netflix.