After an incredibly long absence - about a year and a half - TG USA is finally back for some new episodes next week. I can't quite figure out why the show has been off the air for so long... I remember reading somewhere that the guys took time out to let Adam's arm heal but a year and a half seems like a long time to wait. Regardless, TG USA is back and, ironically, is now the only iteration of Top Gear that has remained unchanged over the last year. It looks to be a good series - we know that the show will be kicking off with a two-episode premiere, one of which will be an off-road episode. We can also expect a road trip through Cuba at some point in the series (which should be fascinating given recent developments in US-Cuba relations), a DIY postal delivery vehicle challenge, the guys at Le Mans, a convertibles-for-winter challenge, and Tanner and Rutledge taking on Adam in a tank.
In other news, filming for CH&M presumably continues behind-the-scenes (how they've managed to escape the prying eyes of the public while filming is a mystery to me seeing as it happened all the time when they filmed for Top Gear). Recently, the guys were seen at an auction. Although it's unclear exactly what they were doing, it's likely that they were filming the end of their off-road Mercedes challenge/thing since it was also spotted at the same auction.
TG UK continues to battle onwards amidst a seemingly never ending sea of UK tabloids running a myriad of stories about supposed behind-the-scenes chaos. Over the last few months there have been rumours of LeBlanc and Evans falling out, reports of the crew having to abandon a half-a-million dollar shoot in Kazakhstan due to airline issues (which is massively upsetting for me since this was probably the one thing I was most excited for), and, of course, the massive uproar over the Cenotaph stunt. Last week, LeBlanc and Evans were filming in Ireland with a pair of Rolls Royces but otherwise filming has been relatively quiet; as a side note, I'm yet to see Chris Harris film anything for the show - we've seen Sabine in America, Eddie Jordan in South Africa, LeBlanc and Evans all over the place, and Rory filming in Scotland but Harris is yet to show up anywhere.
It does look increasingly likely that the recent stories about a delay in the Top Gear release date are correct. We can safely assume that there's no way in hell it'll be back on the air on the 8th of May as Evans had previously touted. And now I'd doubt it'll be back on the 22nd of May either. Part of this would have to be the failure of the Kazakhstan shoot since that presumably would've been a main item for one of the upcoming episodes. I'd say that the show will most likely be back right at the end of May (the 29th) since the BBC's marketing team won't want to have lied about the May return date that they've been running all over the place (including on BBC America). If not, then it'll be back in June.