With the first episode landing last Friday at midnight, Amazon Prime Videos’s new flagship TV show, The Grand Tour has shot to the top of their list for their biggest how premiere.
The former Top Gear Trio launched their brand new automotive show with as many bells and whistles as they could throw at it. With a shot of Jeremy Clarkson in a dreary rainy London opening the show (and an equally slow version of ‘I Can See Clearly Now the Rain Has Gone’), radio voice overs about previous corporate entities removing him from their roster, we see controversial presenter head to Heathrow to board a plane taking him to bigger and better things.
Landing in California he finds his Ford Mustang awaiting him there and suddenly the mood changed, driving along a highway he’s suddenly joined by two more Mustangs (obviously) driven by his co-stars Richard Hammond and James May. The five minute sequence continues with the car-mad stars driving across a Californian desert joined by what seemed liked hundreds of other cars in perfect formation, they all converged on a huge rock concert in their honour. Complete with an epic fly-past and The Hothouse Flowers version (who were now live on stage) of I Can See Clearly Now the Rain Has Gone ramping up to become an brilliant opening anthem, Amazon showed what we, the viewers were in for a real treat.
It seems the PR around the show has worked with a release coming in this morning to confirm that The Grand Tour has had the biggest opening in Amazon Prime TV history. They don’t specify the exact number but confirm ‘millions of Prime members streamed the show during its opening weekend exceeding their previous best from The Man in The High Castle.
Viewers of the show have also reacted by voting in numbers on IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Amazon itself with an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the show. Rotten Tomatoes is currently at 98% at the time of writing with IMDb currently at 9.6 from over 10800 votes.
It seems that Amazon very much have a hit on their hands here. Was there every any doubt? Episode 2 from Johannesburg launches this Friday 25th November.
If you watched The Grand Tour, let us know what you thought in the comments below.
The Hothouse Flowers – I Can See Clearly Now
