Fifth Gear Began When the BBC Kept Top Gear, Beside Top Gear Australia

In 2002 Channel 5 wanted to keep the name Top Gear. The BBC said no, because it still ran the Top Gear magazine, and relaunched its own show with a drastically different format later that year. What the commercial channel got instead was Fifth Gear, which opened with the old format and many of the old presenters, and which is still on air more than two decades later.

Three more motoring programmes follow: Jay Leno's Garage, made in a Burbank garage, Overhaulin', mostly built in Southern California, and Top Gear Australia, taped in a Sydney airfield hangar.

Fifth Gear, the show Top Gear left behind

Fifth Gear began as a continuation of the original Top Gear, which ran from 1977 until the BBC cancelled it in 2001. It first went out on 8 April 2002 with Quentin Willson, Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson and Adrian Simpson, all of whom had worked on the BBC version. It was branded 5th Gear until 2005 and stayed on Channel 5 until 2011, then moved to the Discovery Channel in 2012, to History in 2015 and, since 2018, to Quest.

The two programmes needled each other. After a barn fire damaged Top Gear property, host Jeremy Clarkson joked that Fifth Gear had "burned our furniture".

Presenters and changes of format

Vicki Butler-Henderson has been with the show from 2002 to 2016 and again since 2018, and Jason Plato joined in 2004, left in 2014 and returned in 2018. Other names passed through: Tiff Needell until 2016, with a return in 2018, Tom Ford from 2002 to 2009, Jonny Smith from 2006, and Karun Chandhok. The producer, Jon Bentley, became a part-time presenter for a year in 2005. Tim Lovejoy was hired in September 2006, Tim Shaw became a presenter in August 2008, and in October 2010 Ben Collins, formerly The Stig on the BBC's Top Gear, appeared for series 18.

The running time kept changing. The first seven series ran 23 minutes plus about seven minutes of adverts. The eighth series came back in autumn 2005 at 45 minutes, and the ninth went to a one-hour slot, around 46 minutes without adverts. Series 17 returned to 23 minutes, and series 21 went back to the one-hour slot.

Where it was filmed changed too. The linking sequences were first shot at the production company's Birmingham offices, then at the Ace Cafe in London from series 10, and from series 14 at the Millbrook Proving Ground, which also hosted some of the vehicle tests. The production company, then part of Chrysalis, was sold to All3Media in September 2003 and is now North One Television.

The shoot-outs

Fifth Gear built its name on shoot-outs between similarly priced, similarly powerful cars, and in later years cars against bikes. They were held at Anglesey Circuit on the Isle of Anglesey, and moved to Castle Combe while Anglesey was refurbished. The first series pitted a Ford Focus RS against a Honda Civic Type-R and a Seat Leon Cupra R. Later years brought a Ducati 999 against a Lamborghini Gallardo in 2005, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX against a stunt plane in 2006, and a Ford Gran Torino against a Dodge Charger in 2007. A hire car shoot-out in 2007 matched a Vauxhall Astra 1.6 with a Ford Focus 1.6 Zetec, and in 2009 one episode set a Metrobus bus against another Metrobus. By 2011 the fights had become a Nissan GT-R against a Porsche 911 Turbo S, and a McLaren MP4-12C against a Ferrari 458 Italia.

The features went well beyond that. In series 20 the presenters carried out a 120 mph (190 km/h) crash test, and Tiff Needell put Roy Keane through his paces at the Nurburgring. Cricketers Jimmy Anderson and Ian Botham also got Nurburgring lessons that series, and Vicki Butler-Henderson learned evasive driving from the police who chauffeur the Royal Family. In 2012 Vicki visited Gordon Murray's home to present his first electric car, the T27.

Cancellation, relaunch and Fifth Gear Recharged

Tiff Needell announced the show's cancellation on 24 May 2016. In June 2018 he said he had been filming a new series, which aired on Quest in September 2018. Following a 2021 relaunch with an emphasis on electric cars, the programme became Fifth Gear Recharged, with Vicki Butler-Henderson, Sid North, Karun Chandhok and Jason Plato presenting. In 2024 North One scrapped the all-EV format and the show reverted to the name Fifth Gear, with Rory Reid rejoining the line-up.

Channel 5 wanted the Top Gear name in 2002. The BBC said no, and a rival show was born.

Jay Leno's Garage

Jay Leno's Garage is an American series that started online and spent years on television. Leno, the former host of The Tonight Show, produces it and stars in it. It launched in 2014 on NBC.com, and a one-off special aired on CNBC in August that year. In 2015 it became a weekly prime-time series on CNBC, where it stayed until 2022 before moving to YouTube.

Leno's reviews cover classic cars, restored cars, vintage and sports cars, and supercars such as the McLaren P1. Jay Leno's Big Dog Garage is in Burbank, California, near Hollywood Burbank Airport. In 2016 it won a Primetime Emmy in the Outstanding Special Class category for short-format nonfiction programmes.

The network announced in January 2023 that seven seasons would be the last it broadcast. Leno carries on producing it for his YouTube channel, which had over 3.99 million subscribers as of August 2026. The show also travelled. Australian viewers got it on Discovery Turbo from 1 February 2016, British viewers on Dave from 28 August 2016, and in Mexico the first three seasons can be streamed.

Overhaulin' and the week-long makeover

Overhaulin' is an American automotive reality series. It ran for five seasons from 2004 to 2008 on TLC. After a four-year break, a sixth season premiered on 2 October 2012 on Velocity and Discovery, and in June 2019 a return on Motor Trend was announced for 16 November 2019.

How the surprise worked

The premise was a prank with a happy ending. Family or friends nominated an unsuspecting owner, called the mark, and the car, usually an old and tired antique, was obtained through a ruse: it might be "stolen" by a host, misplaced at a mechanic's shop, or towed away by "police". The co-hosts played tricks on the mark, sometimes posing as insurance adjusters or law enforcement agents, while designer Chip Foose and his team of mechanics, called the A-Team, had eight days to turn the car into a custom masterpiece. Every episode closed with owner and newly made-over car reunited.

The hosts were Foose and co-host Chris Jacobs, with Bud Brutsman as creator and producer. Courtney Hansen co-hosted until 2005 and was replaced by Brutsman's wife Adrienne Janic, known as AJ. Jessi Combs, an early A-Team mechanic, returned from the sixth season to co-host and join the builds, and Arianny Celeste later replaced her after Combs moved to another Velocity show, All Girls Garage.

Eight days, sixty people and a Hummer

The producers reviewed thousands of submissions before choosing a deserving person. Most builds took place in Southern California, and in line with the premise the crew had only eight days. Up to sixty people could be involved at one time. According to associate producer Jim Holloway, the show assembled seven or eight volunteer builders about four to five days before taping. Major sponsors shipped parts to the build site ahead of time, so that items such as air-filter housings and tyre sizes could be test-fitted without waiting. Holloway put the value of each finished vehicle at around $150,000.

The show's most public project came in 2006, when the crew remodelled a 1993 Hummer H1 that CNN had used in its Iraq war coverage. In one week they replaced the engine, raised the body and airbrushed images of correspondents and troops on it, and added a DVD player, four televisions and a sound system. The Hummer, named Warrior One, was unveiled at CNN Center in Atlanta and sold at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction in 2007 for a million dollars, as a Fisher House Foundation charity lot.

At the 2012 SEMA Show, Foose and his team built a 2012 Chrysler 300 S with a 5.7L HEMI V8 engine into the Foose Velocity 300 in front of a live audience. The finished car was given away in a lottery at the event, and a replica followed later. Velocity renewed the show for its sixth season, produced by WATV Productions. On 12 October 2015 a finale was announced, with a ninth season of four episodes to be its last, though the series was announced as returning in 2019.

Top Gear Australia

Top Gear Australia is a motoring reality series based on the British BBC programme. It premiered on SBS One on 29 September 2008, and a second season was ordered after high ratings for the first episode and positive comments from advertisers. Season two began on 11 May 2009. The Nine Network bought the rights to the UK version in 2009 and began airing its own Top Gear Australia in September 2010. A fourth season arrived in 2011, and the show was cancelled on 28 April 2012 because of declining ratings.

The presenters

SBS ran an open casting call that drew over 4000 applications. The line-up SBS chose was Warren Brown, a cartoonist and motoring columnist, Charlie Cox, a MotoGP commentator, and Steve Pizzati, a race driver and instructor. Pre-launch marketing promised The Stig's Australian cousin, but the first episode introduced the driver as just The Stig; Pizzati suggested an Australian name such as Stiggo, and the other presenters refused. Cox announced on 19 December 2008 that he was leaving, and trumpeter James Morrison replaced him for season two.

For season three, early reports claimed Shane Warne would host alongside Jeremy Clarkson, but the BBC ruled out Clarkson. In the end actor and comedian Shane Jacobson and magazine editor Ewen Page joined a returning Pizzati. They opened on 28 September 2010 with a 75-minute special, The Ashes, in which they took on their Top Gear UK counterparts. The UK presenters won after cheating in the final challenge, using a professional race driver instead of James May.

Studio, track and segments

As in Britain, the studio segments were taped in an airfield hangar, at Bankstown Airport in Sydney, where the Dunsfold Park studio was copied exactly. Power laps and the celebrity segment, Star in a Bog Standard Car, were recorded at Camden Airport, which used parts of the runways and taxiways as a test track. The theme music is a version of "Jessica", as in the UK. All specifications are in metric units and prices in Australian dollars.

The first two seasons used a track with nine corners run anti-clockwise. From season three the course was extended into a figure of eight with twelve corners and a length of 2.3 km, run clockwise. The celebrity car for the first two seasons was a Proton Satria Neo, and Nine's third season swapped it for a second-hand 1995 Ford XG Falcon ute.

Other segments included "What Were They Thinking?", where presenters put pictures of stupid motoring ideas on a board, and from season three "V8 to the Rescue", which fitted a V8 to an everyday item. Examples included a see-saw, a kebab cooker and a cricket bowling machine. In October 2008 the hosts caused a traffic jam in Toorak, Victoria, by driving a tractor through the suburb, a joke on the slang "Toorak Tractor" for a luxury SUV.

The ratings

The first episode drew 933,000 viewers, the highest rating SBS had recorded for a locally made programme, and the first season then averaged around 650,000. Michael Idato of The Sydney Morning Herald thought the first episode "a little too tricked up for its own good". Season two opened with 689,000 viewers and averaged 576,500. The Nine Network's season three premiere pulled in 1,538,000. Season four was cancelled after three of six recorded episodes had aired, and the rest were shown on Nine's channel Go! in April 2012.

An eight-part fifth season, announced in October 2023 and made by BBC Studios Australia, premiered on Paramount+ on 17 May 2024 with Blair "Moog" Joscelyne, Beau Ryan and Jonathan LaPaglia as hosts. It reached free-to-air television on Network 10 and 10Play on 17 October 2024.

The four shows compared

Where the four shows stand now

Fifth Gear is back to its original name, with Rory Reid in the line-up after the all-electric experiment ended in 2024. Jay Leno's Garage is now a YouTube series that Leno still produces. Overhaulin' was announced for a return in 2019, and Top Gear Australia came back in 2024 with new hosts.