91Èȱ¬

HISTORYâ„¢ is in production with 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide Productions on Top Gear. The series, which showcases an offbeat celebration of automobiles and driving, is set to premiere this fall 2010, and will be hosted by comedian and car buff Adam Ferrara, champion rally and drift racer Tanner Foust and racing analyst Rutledge Wood.

HISTORY confirmed the first round of on set talent interviews, to include: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin; Tim Allen ("Toy Story" and "91Èȱ¬ Improvement"); Ty Burrell ("Modern Family"); skateboarder Tony Hawk; Musician Bret Michaels; Dominic Monaghan ("LOST"); Musician Kid Rock; and Michelle Rodriguez ("Avatar").

The network is also officially announcing: YES THERE WILL BE A STIG!!

The Stig is a key figure in the Top Gear brand. The masked stunt driver’s identity remains unknown as IT takes each one of the featured cars through the ultimate test around the Top Gear track, setting the benchmark time that each car will be judged by.

Featuring super-cars, extreme stunts and challenges, car reviews and celebrity interviews, Top Gear is the home for anyone with a love of cars. The U.S. version will be chock-full of high-adrenaline action entertainment as it tracks the colorful history of the automobile as well as the eccentric adventures of its hosts with Top Gear's customary wit and humor. The series harkens back to HISTORY's very first day, and the network's very first program ever to air, Automobiles: Corvette.

Top Gear is a co-production between HISTORY and 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide. Scott Messick serves as Executive Producer.

Top Gear, which premiered in the UK in 1977, is consistently 91Èȱ¬ TWO's most-watched program in the UK. Top Gear also reaches over 150 million households globally and made its stateside debut on 91Èȱ¬ America in 2007. One of the 91Èȱ¬â€™s premiere brands, Top Gear, the magazine, is the leading car publication in the UK, and the global road tour, Top Gear Live, proved to be a great success in 2009.

Top Gear has also been the recipient of various awards including National Television Awards, BAFTAs, Broadcast Awards, Royal Television Society Awards and an International Emmy. Celebrity guests have included Helen Mirren, Hugh Grant, Simon Cowell, Ewan McGregor and Gordon Ramsay.

Top Gear is a co-production of 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide Productions and HISTORY. Executive Producer is Scott Messick. Executive producer for 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide is John Hesling (SVP, Programming, 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide Productions). Executive producer for HISTORY is Dirk Hoogstra (VP, Programming, HISTORY).

NOTES TO EDITORS

ABOUT THE CAST
Adam Ferrara
Adam Ferrara is an acclaimed comedian, currently starring on the Emmy-nominated hit FX show, Rescue Me, and recently appeared opposite Kevin James in the theatrical feature, Paul Blart: Mall Cop. A regular comedian on various hit talk shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, The View and Rachel Ray, Ferrara has been dubbed 'hilarious' by Entertainment Weekly and is a two-time nominee for best male stand-up by the American Comedy Awards. Adam’s favorite car is a Pagani Zonda F Roadster.

Tanner Foust
Tanner Foust is in high-demand as a stunt driver, with film credits including The Bourne Ultimatum, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and The Dukes of Hazard. Foust is a winning competitor in rally, drift, ice racing and time attack with multiple champion podium placements in the past few years including the 2010 Rally and Rallycross X Games Champion, 2007 X Games Rally Champion and 2007 Formula Drift Pro Drift Champion. Foust now holds more X Games Rally gold medals than any other competitor. His varied race experience includes open wheel competition, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb (2002 - 2004), five Ice Racing championships and the 2005 PGT Rally Championship. He also holds class lap records at numerous U.S. road courses in Time Attack. In addition, Foust also hosted "Supercars Exposed" for the SPEED channel. Tanner's driving career started early when he was fired from his job driving a ski resort bus for drifting across the parking lot.

Rutledge Wood
Rutledge Wood is a truly car-obsessed and learned from his father, at an early age, the business of buying, restoring and selling new and old vehicles. His love of cars led him to NASCAR, and to starring in NASCAR Smarts on the SPEED Channel, a NASCAR trivia game show with Kyle Petty and John Roberts. He's also a roving reporter for NASCAR RaceDay Built by the 91Èȱ¬ Depot, Trackside Live and NASCAR Live. To this day, Wood has owned over 40 cars and trucks ranging from a Volkswagen Rabbit pickup truck to Honda's, Chevy's, and even as weird as a 1975 Bricklin SV-1. His favorite is a 1953 Plymouth Suburban that was given to him by the King himself, Richard Petty.

About HISTORY
HISTORY® and HISTORY HD® are the leading destinations for revealing, award-winning original non-fiction series and event-driven specials that connect history with viewers in an informative, immersive and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. Programming covers a diverse variety of historical genres ranging from military history to contemporary history, technology to natural history, as well as science, archaeology and pop culture. Among the network's program offerings are hit series such as American Pickers, Ax Men, The Universe, Ice Road Truckers, Chasing Mummies, Top Shot and Pawn Stars, as well as acclaimed specials including America The Story Of Us, WWII In HD, 102 Minutes That Changed America, Moonshot and Life After People. HISTORY has earned four Peabody Awards, seven Primetime Emmy® Awards, 12 News & Documentary Emmy® Awards and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's Save Our History® campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. Take a Veteran to School Day is the network's latest initiative connecting America's schools and communities with veterans from all wars. The HISTORY website, located at www.history.com, is the leading online resource for all things history, featuring over 20,000 videos, images, audio clips, articles and interactive features that allow visitors to dig deeper into a broad range of thousands of historical topics.

Christine Shaw Davis