Trivia / The Grand Tour

• Executive Meddling:
  • After leaving Top Gear (UK) with The BBC and taking their act to Amazon, producer Andy Wilman discussed at a panel how setting up the new series was fraught with negotiations and discussions about what the presenters could and could not take with them to The Grand Tour. Among other things, it was determined they could not call a discussion of current events "The News"^note Even though the revised Top Gear ended up not having an in-show news segment in it., could not use a leaderboard with handwritten car names and times on it, and other miscellaneous issues. A news article also mentioned they could not do celebrity interviews and then have said celebrities race around a track akin to "Star In A Reasonably Priced Car." The Grand Tour changed things as needed, occasionally with an unsubtle Take That! to the BBC's legal department; for example, "Celebrity Brain Crash". One such rumoured restriction on James May using the exclamation "Cock!" was shown to be untrue in the "Past v Future" episode after he says it when missing the concert.
  • Amazon engaged in a bit of Executive Meddling of their own, insisting that the show's test driver be American, resulting in the immensely unpopular "The American," played by NASCAR driver Mike Skinner. After much negative feedback from fans and reviewers, Skinner left the show and was replaced by British racer Abbie Eaton.
• No Export for You: Initially, the show was only available in The Americas, half of Europe, The UK, India, and Japan. However, starting 13 December 2016, the show is now available in over 200 countries, through a new Prime Video website, that allows users in other countries where Amazon may not offer an Amazon Prime Membership that includes streaming video (or where access to one of Amazon's storefronts is limited) to subscribe to Prime Video content on its own.
  • China, for now, is still a notable exception, the presenters even point this out in Season 3's "Chinese Food for Thought", an episode completely set in China.
• On-Set Injury:
  • While filming in Mozambique for the second season, Richard Hammond was seriously injured after falling off his motorbike.
  • While filming another segment, Hammond was hospitalized after crashing a Rimac Concept One during a hill climbing event in Switzerland. He was able to escape the accident with a fractured knee, despite the car flipping and catching fire shortly afterwards. The crash footage was shown in the first episode of the second season.
  • While filming in Scandinavia, James May broke a rib and gashed his head after crashing his car into the wall of a tunnel during a speed test. Since this happened in the middle of filming the special, the footage and May's recovery were incorporated into the finished product.
• Permanent Placeholder: The test track had one corner with a large billboard next to it. Jeremy Clarkson explained they were going to get a sponsor for the corner, but they hadn't found anyone who wants to advertise. So they were stuck with calling the corner "Your Name Here".
• What Could Have Been: One of the Series 4 specials was meant to be filmed in Russia, but the COVID-19 Pandemic prevented that from happening as travel outside of the UK was restricted. Then, in March 2022, after it became possible for the presenters and crew to travel internationally again, it was announced that they began filming in Norway; it's likely that the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began the previous month has indefinitely halted plans to film over there entirely.

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