Top Gear pair give BBC America a lift

BBC America has booked top UK talent for its first major original productions, including two Top Gear presenters.

Richard Hammond, co-host of the petrolhead series, will travel to the States to front Hard Drive with Richard Hammond (working title).

Produced by BBC Worldwide Productions and based on the BBC format World’s Toughest Driving Tests, the 6×60′ series features Hammond travelling the US to drive some of America’s toughest vehicles.

Hammond’s colleague James May is filming a US pilot version of his UK format Man Lab, produced by Plum Pictures.

Meanwhile, Graham Norton will present Would You Rather (working title), a 13-episode comedy gameshow testing the wits of US comics.

The show will be produced by So Television, which has worked with Norton on his previous UK projects. BBC America plans to debut the series later this year as part of its Ministry of Laughs season.

The programmes form part of an initial slate of unscripted development greenlit by BBC America general manager Perry Simon.

Other commissions include Auto Biography (working title), from Shine-owned US prodco Reveille, which is described as Who Do You Think You Are? for cars.

True Entertainment and Gawker Media have been commissioned to make gadget testing show Battlemodo and Notional is producing competitive cooking programme No Kitchen Required.

The channel has also ordered a one-hour pilot of Shock Therapy, produced by BBC Worldwide Productions and adapted from the BBC’s UK format Fat & Fatter.