Although I doubt this comes as a huge surprise to anyone, it is nice to get official confirmation. The Grand Tour has knocked The Man In The High Castle from the top spot, to become Amazon Prime’s most streamed show ever.
Although Amazon, like Netflix, don’t release actual streaming numbers, they have said that “millions of Prime members streaming the first episode in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Japan over the opening weekend.” They also said that the day The Grand Tour debuted, the total new Prime membership sign-ups exceeded all previous days with the exception of Amazon’s ‘Prime Day’, where Prime customers are offered exclusive deals.
“The guys are back, doing what they do best – the chemistry between Jeremy, Richard and James is what makes The Grand Tour so entertaining,” commented Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon. “Their creativity, along with the amazing production quality and 4K HDR streaming, has Prime members responding in a big way. Kudos and congrats to the whole team.”
The show also has been garnering critical acclaim from the public and professional critics. IMDb has it rated at 9.6 with over 10,000 votes, and Rotten Tomatoes has it scoring 97%. The Guardian called it a “A brilliant beautiful spectacle,” whilst the New York Post commented that “Between the gear head banter and intoxicating visuals, The Grand Tour makes for a sweet escape from the real world we all live in.”
The first episode streamed onto Amazon Prime Video last Friday, and saw Clarkson apparently handing over his BBC pass, before boarding a plane to LA, then driving off into the desert, only to be joined by Hammond & May, and a bunch of other weird and wonderful cars. The Mad Max-esque sequence ends with them arriving to a stage with the Hothouse Flowers playing “I Can See Clearly Now” to a throng of excited Americans. The show goes on show a head-to-head between a McLaren P1, a Porsche 918 and a Ferrari LaFerrari – something Top Gear wanted to do, but couldn’t secure the cars… Plus a fight with the audience, killing off 3 celebs, and a very dubious bet on the part of Clarkson… It’s 3 idiots we love, messing about in cars once more. Brilliant, funny and hugely entertaining.
New episodes of The Grand Tour will be released every Friday over the next 11 weeks for Prime members in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Japan, and the show will premiere worldwide for Amazon customers in over 200 countries and territories in December.
