Newly hotted-up Top Gear hits screens

This article is a preview report on the upcoming Top Gear Australia series. The piece appears on the Sydney Morning Herald and is written by wire service AAP.

It begins with soundbites from host Shane Jacobson, a popular Australian comedian and actor. There is also a brief background on how it used to be shown on SBS for two seasons before the Nine Network bought the rights.

The show will launch with The Ashes Special, a crossover pilot with the original UK version which pits the British hosts (Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond) against the Aussies (Jacobson, Ewen Page and Steve Pizzati).

The article then goes on to describe the various challenges that will be attempted in the episode, some of which Jacobson candidly admits is “not so much about driving skills” but “bravery and stupidity”.

Jacobson also describes the friendly rivalry between the two teams and is quick to discredit the inevitable comparisons between the two versions’ hosts. The story ends with a ‘plug-line’ for the show.

The headline is not really attention-grabbing, and I feel a more automotive-themed pun or clever wordplay can be employed. There is an intrusive Google ad for a credit card company between the headline and the main image. On the left at the top of the sidebar is an interesting feature which informs the reader if anyone else who is his/her friend on Facebook is reading the article as well, with an option to share the story on the social networking site. There is also a ‘Comment on Twitter’ and a ‘Read tweets’ hyperlinks, but the latter directs to a dead link.

The main image serves its purpose, though it would be better if there was an embedded link to a higher-resolution version. On the left of the first few paragraphs, there are ‘Related Coverage’, ‘Top Entertainment articles’ and ‘Story Tools’ links that encourage site exploration. On the right are TV reviews with star ratings, also serving the same purpose. There is a distracting bank banner ad a quarter way through the piece which interrupts the reader’s ‘eye tracking’ through the story.

After the story there are even more Google ads, followed by a ‘More Related Coverage’ box with a link to a ‘Reviews’ page and a related news story on the enigmatic test driver ‘The Stig’. Scrolling towards the bottom, a pop-up slides in from the bottom-left of the browser, before disappearing after the user keeps scrolling on or leaves it for a few seconds. The pop-up is a link to a Princess Diana film story under the heading ‘Also In Entertainment’, and again, it encourages user ‘site inertia’. The pop-up reminds me of those digital on-screen graphics we see on TV shows after commercial breaks that quietly promote or remind the viewer of upcoming shows in the programming schedule.

Overall, the story serves its purpose of putting in a good word for the show, but it would’ve been better if they had interviewed the other UK and Aussie hosts. Design-wise, SMH could do with less distracting banner ads directly placed in its piece, and should arrange them to the side so as to not break the reader’s ‘flow’. The little pop-up that appears upon scrolling to the end of the title is a clever strategy to invite the reader to explore another story on the site, and is a nice touch.


http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/newly-hottedup-top-gear-hits-screens-20100926-15s63.html