Top Gear Margovya (History of Margovya)

Top Gear Margovya (Russian: Top Gear: Марговская версия, Margovyan: Top Gear: Vercion de Margovia) is the Margovyan adaptation of the popular British car magazine program. The show's current presenters are popular Margovyan singers, , and , and ; all from the band. Arigov was made an "interim presenter" after Kumilyova suffered an accident in Arkonaysk; he was later confirmed as a full presenter at the start of series 10. It also features a test driver known as the Pimp, the local version of. The show is estimated to have and average of twenty-six million views per week. The show premiered on February 27, 2009, and has broadcast a total of twelve series. The twelfth series of the show premiered on March 13, 2015 after nine months of hiatus following a controversy involving LTM and local automotive companies.

The show has received critical acclaim for its visual style and presentation, and some criticism for its content and the politically incorrect remarks its hosts sometimes make. It is also the first Top Gear spin-off to feature female presenters instead of male ones.

History
Top Gear Margovya is not the first car magazine show produced by Let's Talk Margovya. An earlier program, titled , preceded Top Gear Margovya by nineteen years, being first broadcast in 1990. Cars of Margovya ran for fourteen years before ending in 2004, upon the death of its latest and eventually last host. Steadily decreasing viewership rates forced Let's Talk Margovya to not renew the program, and it would take four more years before another car magazine show would be produced in Margovya.

Let's Talk Margovya began airing episodes of BBC's  to fill in the 17.30 to 18.30 spot once occupied by Cars of Margovya, and the network was inspired to create its own version of the show after seeing the high viewership ratings garnered by the original Top Gear. On December 5, 2007, Let's Talk Margovya officially announced the Margovyan version of Top Gear, titled Top Gear Margovya. Let's Talk Margovya was rumored to have chosen from at least a hundred possible candidates before finally settling on, , and of. Former President was reportedly approached by the network to host the show, but turned down the offer because of concerns that a Margovyan version may not be as well-liked as the original British version. The studio segments of the pilot episode were filmed on February 20, 2008 to favorable reviews.

The first Top Gear Margovya trailer was posted on Let's Talk Margovya's website on February 20, 2009, giving fans a preview of what to expect from the new series. In this trailer, hosts Kumilyova, Kalinina, and Atolova were seen driving down the North Margovyan Superhighway in sports cars, Kumilyova tests an Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, and former President drives a 2005 model Ford Crown Victoria around the Top Gear Test Track. The first series premiered on February 27, 2009, and its latest series, Series 9, began broadcast on April 19, 2013.

On May 7, 2013, Gavrina Kumilyova was seriously injured when her Yakovich V800 sports car crashed into a Yakovich M91 monster truck. Since the program had already been approved for 12 episodes, the producers signed Lev Arigov, the Margovyan Education Minister, as an "interim presenter" until Kumilyova recovers enough to return to the show. Eventually Arigov was made into a full presenter in series 10, but not before revealing that he was actually the Pimp in the second-to-the-last episode of series 9.

On June 27, 2014, it was revealed that the KLAY Consortium, a group of Margovyan automotive corporations composed of Khristenko, Lubovenko, Andropov, and Yakovich had been paying large sums of money to Let's Talk Margovya and TGM series director and his charitable foundations in exchange for favorable reviews of their cars being presented on the show. This led to the sudden canceling of series 11 on the same date, and to an unplanned nine-month hiatus.

Top Gear Margovya finally returned to television on March 13, 2015, with some significant changes: Vulvanov had been fired as director and replaced with, a former assistant director for TGM who left the show in the tenth series following "personal differences" with the other production staff, especially Vulvanov. Executive producer Yelizaveta Vulvanova also confirmed that the show's presenters (Kumilyova, Kalinina, Atolova and Arigov) have been given even more freedom as to making content for the show. She also dispelled rumors that the new series will be composed of the six unaired episodes of series 11.

Power Laps
In this segment, the Pimp drives a car around the Top Gear Margovya test track (commonly one that has reviewed earlier by a presenter) to gauge its performance and compare it to various contenders. To be eligible for the Power Lap board, Top Gear Margovya follows the original Top Gear's rules in that the vehicle must be road-legal, and must have sufficient ride height to clear a speed bump (or, as the presenters sometimes call it, a "sleeping policeman"), although sometimes cars that do not meet these requirements are still tested. When this happens, the vehicle's lap time is compared to others on the board and then removed. The fastest car ever tested on Top Gear Margovya was the, which posted a lap time of 1:13.8, the same time it posted on the original Top Gear.

Star in a Reasonably Priced Car
In each episode, one of the hosts (alternating between Gavrina, Tanya, and Maria) interviews a celebrity (usually, but not always, from Margovya), and then they and the audience watch the star's lap around the Top Gear test track. The time is then recorded on a leader board. For the show's first four series, the Reasonably Priced Car was a 2005 model.

At the beginning of the fifth series, in 2011, the Crown Victoria was replaced by the, which Toyota first began selling in Margovya the same year. Since the Innova's performance was different from the Crown Victoria, the leader board was wiped clean, allowing celebrities to return and record new lap times.

The format for setting a lap time is the same one used on the original Top Gear: the star is allowed five practice laps, and then a final timed lap. No allowance is made for errors committed on the final lap. There are rumors that the Innova may be replaced by a new car upon the end of the ninth series.

President (then the Vice President of Margovya) set the fastest lap time in the Crown Victoria, with a time of 1:39.9. The fastest lap time in the Innova thus far is the Pimp's 1:41.89, followed closely by, who achieved a time of 1:41.91 on May 3, 2013.

Former President went around the final corner of the track on two wheels, prompting the presenters to call the corner "Filitov Corner." lost a wheel during his lap, and destroyed the clutches of both the main and back-up cars. Current Vice President shattered the Innova's third gear during his lap, necessitating the use of the backup car.

The Innova was officially replaced in series 11 with the as the new Reasonably Priced Car. Currently the fastest star in the Fiat is, who posted a lap time of 1:38.65. Former president failed to beat Wade's time by just 0.02 seconds with a lap time of 1:38.67.

Challenges
Occasionally, the show would feature novelty challenges and short stunt films, typically based on absurd premises such as a bus jumping over thirty motorcycles (instead of the other way around), or creating amphibious cars that can go from Margovya to the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil.

Starting in series five, at least one episode per series featured a "Cheap Car" challenge, in which the presenters are given a budget (typically around five thousand margots, but ranges between five hundred margots and fifty thousand margots, depending on the type of car) to buy a car that conforms to certain criteria. Once purchased, the presenters compete against each other in a series of challenges to establish who has bought the best car. The presenters have no prior knowledge of what the tests will be, although they typically involve long journeys to evaluate the cars' reliability and fuel economy, and a race track event to determine performance.

"Harassing Tanya's Guitar"
Not a real segment but a sort-of running gag in the program, "Harassing Tanya's Guitar" is a time in the show in which Kumilyova and/or Atolova take Kalinina's personalized guitar (built by Shevchenko Custom Instruments) and think of various ways of destroying it, and then Kalinina shouting her now famous quote, "My guitar!" once it is destroyed. This gag first came up in the series three episode, "The Budget Episode," in which the show was "forced to operate on a very small budget due to the Margovyan recession". Kalinina used her guitar to play her version of the opening theme "Jessica," but then Kumilyova declared that she didn't like it (the guitar, not Kalinina's rendition), and proceeded to kick the guitar out of Kalinina's hands and use it as a football.

By the presenters' estimate, Tanya's guitar has been "harassed" for a total of fifty-seven episodes, and since the ninth series is in production, it is expected that the guitar will be destroyed at least a few more times.

Notable instances of the guitar's destruction include it being on the landing ramp during the "bus over thirty motorcycles" challenge, being blown up during Kalinina's birthday in the series eight opener, and Chris Masters running over the guitar during his lap around the Top Gear test track in his Yakovich WWE sports car.

Critics believe that this is quickly becoming one of the biggest factors why people love watching Top Gear Margovya. However, starting from the beginning of series 12, it was announced that this segment would no longer be in any episodes since it detracted from the actual reviewing of cars in the series, according to executive producer Yelizaveta Vulvanova. Tanya Kalinina also said in a recent interview that this segment was conceived by Marvik Vulvanov back before he was director of the series to distract viewers from the fact that the show may not be as factual as it claimed to be.

Episodes
Main Article: 

Criticism
Top Gear Margovya has earned its fair share of criticisms from Margovyan media and sometimes South American media as well. However, its biggest controversy came in June 27, 2014 when it was discovered that a group of Margovyan automotive companies called the KLAY Consortium (for Khristenko, Lubovenko, Andropov, and Yakovich) had been sending large amounts of money to Let's Talk Margovya and TGM series director in exchange for showing their cars on the series and giving favorable reviews to the cars. This resulted on TGM being cancelled mid-series, and the show is only making a return to television on March 13, 2015 following shakeups within the show's production staff, chief of which was the replacement of Vulvanov with former TGM assistant director, who had left the show in 2013 following "personal differences" with Vulvanov.