Top Gear is a BBC television series about cars. The eighth series (under current format) began airing on Sundays at 20:00 on BBC2 on 7 May 2006 with each episode available to view via the BBC website any time after its first broadcast. Top Gear is estimated to have over 350 million viewers worldwide, 5 million of whom watch the programme each week in the UK. [1] Top Gear is currently hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, The Stig and Top Gear Dog, a labradoodle (which is a crossbreed of a Labrador and a Poodle). It is provocative, humorous and light-hearted in tone.