Top Gear is an Emmy award winning car-based BBC television series produced by BBC Birmingham, and starting broadcasting on BBC2 from 1977. It first consisted of a 30-minute magazine program presented by a number of people, including William Woollard, Angela Rippon, Noel Edmonds, and Jeremy Clarkson.In 2002, the show was completely transformed and relaunched in a new one-hour-long, studio-based format made by the BBC in London. Top Gear is currently presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, and also features a test driver known as The Stig. The program is estimated to have 350 million viewers worldwide.First run episodes were broadcasted in the United Kingdom on BBC Two, and since Series 14, also on BBC HD. Top Gear is also shown on Dave, BBC America, BBC Canada, RTÉ Two in Ireland, Canvas in Belgium, Nine Network, GO! in Australia, Prime TV in New Zealand, and a number of other television channels around the world.The popularity of the show has led to the creation of two international versions, with local production teams and presenters for Australia and Russia. Episodes of the Australian version premièred on 29 September 2008 and NBC was holding the American version for broadcast in February or March 2009, as a possible mid-season replacement, but later dropped it from their schedule before production resumed.The show has received acclaim for its visual style and presentation, as well as considerable criticism for its content and comments made by presenters.