BBC->ke1860 is drawing closer and closer to its May 22 return and while everyone seems to have been caught up with all the controversies surrounding the rebooted show, the Top Gear has taken it upon itself to diffuse the situation – or situations – by releasing a new trailer for the show. It’s probably the least contentious of any news item we’ve done on the new BBC, so it’s a nice way to count down the days before the show goes back on air.

So, about the trailer. There’s a lot of included footage that we can get really excited about. Chris Harris gets behind the wheel of the Aston Martin Vulcan. There’s also a shot of a Ferrari 250 GT TdF on a joyride and what looks to be a road trip adventure that isn’t turning out too well for Eddie Jordan. Oh, and there’s Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc getting the good ‘ol Blackpool welcome, rain and all, from an over enthused member of the clergy.

At the very least, the trailer looks very promising and could get the ball rolling for the entire season, which reportedly has just six episodes. I don’t foresee all of the scenes from the trailer to be included in the first episode, but from the looks of things, everybody seems to be having a good time with the show, a far cry from all the steaming controversies that have already erupted surrounding Evans and LeBlanc.

The dawn of a new day is coming for fans of Top Gear. It’s going to take some getting used to not seeing Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond on the show, but if the season ends up being as fun-filled as the trailer is suggesting, the nostalgia could dissipate faster than an Aston Martin Vulcan hot lap.

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Why it matters

I’m excited to see BBC back, that much I will tell you. But I am a little leery about what to expect with this new format. I’ve said it in the past and I’ll continue saying it: as much as Clarkson was a pain in the you-know-what for the BBC, he was largely responsible for turning BBC into the TV juggernaut that's become. Credit also goes to May and Hammond, but really, it was Clarkson that steered that ship and for the most part. He simply did a tremendous job. I don’t think anybody would care so much about the revamped show if its previous incarnation wasn’t successful, but it was. It was enormously successful and it’s going to cast a huge shadow on this new format.

That’s the burden that Chris Evans, Matt LeBlanc, and the rest of the hosting crew will have to deal with. There’s a lot of pressure in that, which could explain reports that Evans hasn’t been the easiest guy to work with. It’s nothing against him or LeBlanc. It’s just that this is the hand that they willingly accepted, knowing full well that they’d be compared to the three hosts that came before them no matter what they do with the new show.

I hope that they can handle that pressure and judging by the short trailer, they seem to be up to the task. Granted, judgment won’t come until we see the actual episodes, but for the sake of BBC and the enormous following that it has, I’d want nothing more than to see the new hosts create an identity for themselves that’s separate from what Clarkson, May, and Hammond had without having to change too much of the spirit that made BBC must-watch television.

We’ll get to see for ourselves what the new show is going to be like when it comes back on air on May 22, 2016.