The Grand Tour’s New, Younger Hosts Are Doomed To Fail

Amazon Prime is taking a big gamble by not simply retiring The Grand Tour with the departure of the three hosts. After all, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond are quite simply irreplaceable. But the studio seems to think it can pull off what the BBC couldn’t with Top Gear, and it’s doomed to fail.

Richard Nixon’s old Ford Bronco auctioned for shockingly little.

Catching lightning in a bottle would be easier than getting the same kind of magic out of the three new, younger hosts who were just announced. They are Thomas Holland, James Engelsman, and Francis Bourgeois.

Yeah, we haven’t heard of any one of them, either. But one is apparently a big social media “star” or whatever.

Holland and Engelsman have their own YouTube channel called Throttle House, which we know of but honestly couldn’t name those two to save our lives. They do have three million subscribers, which is quite the accomplishment.

But hosting a streaming TV show is a lot different from having a YouTube channel. We wonder how well they’ll transition and mesh with The Grand Tour producers and crew. Maybe they should get some tips on how to “handle” them from Clarkson.

As for Bourgeois, which is a stage name (real name Luke Magnus Nicolson), the 24-year-old likes to wear a GoPro while going trainspotting. He boasts over two million followers on Instagram. That’s cool and all, but it seems Amazon Prime believes these guys will bring all their followers over to watch the show.

We’re not so sure that’ll happen. After all, social media followers often have trouble following someone to a different platform, which is a big problem with social media. The creators become captives of the platform, including on YouTube.

Supposedly, these young guys are every bit as knowledgeable about cars as Clarkson, May, and Hammond. But do they have the charisma? That’s what really drew us and plenty of others to the trio on Top Gear and then The Grand Tour.

We highly doubt they’ve caught that lightning in a bottle.

Image via The Grand Tour/Facebook