Gregson Mathe
We can’t say this is much of a surprise given how popular Clarkson, Hammond, and May truly are, but this is seriously impressive.
When The Grand Tour premiered last Friday, everyone seemed to enjoy it, including us here at Shifting Lanes who gave it a rousing review. Personally, I would give it a 4.5/5 stars: highly entertaining, but room for improvement. The only review that was negative, not surprisingly, came from the BBC who sounded like a jealous ex-girlfriend at prom. Not a good look. Basically, the show was everything we’ve come to expect from the boys, but with a bigger budget. It’s going to continue to be awesome for many years and that’s fantastic.
And you know what else is great news? TGT broke every single streaming record for premieres on the platform.
the trio’s debut was an undisputed success, becoming Amazon Prime’s most-watched premiere in the streaming service’s history. The previous record-holder was The Man in the High Castle.
According to the company, Friday, 18 November – the day The Grand Tour debuted – saw a record number of Amazon Prime subscriptions sold, topping all other days, minus Prime Day super-sales.
The debut episode of the highly anticipated new Amazon Original Series, The Grand Tour, has become the biggest show premiere ever on Amazon Prime Video, with millions of Prime members streaming the first episode in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Japan over the opening weekend. Viewership has even exceeded that of the previous number one show, The Man in The High Castle. Additionally, the day The Grand Tour debuted, total new Prime membership sign-ups exceeded all previous days with the exception of Amazon’s renowned Prime Day.
The Grand Tour is also receiving unprecedented customer and critical acclaim with the show being the top rated TV show or movie on IMDb, the world’s most popular source of movie and TV data, with an overall rating of 9.6 and over 10,000 votes. The show is rated 4.9 out of 5 stars by more than 15,000 customers on Amazon, and currently has a score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“The guys are back, doing what they do best – the chemistry between Jeremy, Richard and James is what makes The Grand Tour so entertaining,” said 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 first episode of The Grand Tour was released at 00.01 GMT on Friday 18th November, and customers immediately started tweeting their thoughts on the blockbuster opening episode:
- @annoyingracefan: I’m more excited about @thegrandtour than I am the birth of my child. I don’t have any kids but I am sure you know what I mean.
- @DannyAllenUK: That intro sequence for @thegrandtour has to be one of the most emotion/beautiful and expensive sequences I’ve ever seen on a TV show.
- @TransAmPatrick: I’m crying. Why am I crying? What’s going on here? I’m in a glass case of emotion! #TheGrandTour
- @BTMcLeod: Started the first episode of @thegrandtour and I can’t remember the last time I was this happy to see 3 middle aged dudes.
- @Tom__Berry: I’m only 3 minutes in and I can already tell that @thegrandtour is the best thing on TV this year.
I love that Amazon quoted Twitter in their own press release. It just shows that Amazon knows what it’s doing and is in touch with the general public WAY more than the BBC ever was.
If you live in the US, UK, Japan, or Germany, you can stream episode 2 this Friday by clicking right here. If you aren’t in those countries, GOOD NEWS [said in my best James May voice], you’ll be able to stream all episodes to date and a new episode every week this December.
The boys are back and better than ever.
(Sources: The Independent and Business Wire)
Leave a reply