It’s not just NEW Top Gear – it’s EXTRA GEAR too

The BBC has revealed that the ‘new’ Top Gear with Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc will get a spin-off show called Extra Gear, hosted by Rory Reid.

It looks like the ‘new’ Top Gear will now go to air on 22 May – complete with its cast of Chris Evans, Matt LeBlanc et al trying to be Clarkson, Hammond and May – but it won’t just be Top Gear on offer, but a new sister show called Extra Gear.

Following in the footsteps of endless other shows – like Strictly: It Takes Two, Xtra Factor, The Apprentice: You’re Fire and Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice – the new Extra Gear will follow straight on from the Top Gear broadcast, but it’ll be on the now web-only BBC Three.

The TG spin-off will do what all other similar shows do, with extra footage that didn’t make the main show, behind the scenes stuff, interviews and, no doubt, the presenters from the main show dragged in to be questioned.

Extra Gear will be hosted by perhaps the least know member of the new Top Gear line-up – Rory Reid – who is ‘hugely excited’ by the prospect. He said:

Top Gear fans are some of the keenest in the world and with this show I’m giving them a chance to really get a peek behind the curtain.

I’m looking forward to showing them how the show is made and what goes on behind the scenes, giving viewers a different perspective on some of the coolest cars on the planet.

We probably shouldn’t read too much in to the BBC’s desire to extract every last drop of air time out of Top Gear – and Extra Gear looks like it will be available worldwide on the web via BBC Three – but there is a nagging worry that ‘Extra Gear’ perhaps signals new Top Gear is targeting a different audience than in the years of Clarkson Hammond and May.

Is that good, or is that bad?