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In a surprise move, former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond have signed a three-year deal with Amazon for a new motoring show. Earlier rumours suggested that the trio—who left the program earlier this year when Clarkson was let go as a consequence of punching a producer—would sign a deal with rival streaming service Netflix.
While the show being created for Amazon Prime—which requires a yearly subscription of £79 in the UK and $99 in the US—doesn't currently have a name, the company has confirmed that it will go into production shortly and launch in 2016. If you don't want Prime's free shipping, you can get Amazon Instant Video on its own with a (slightly) cheaper monthly subscription (£5.99 in the UK). The show will form part of Amazon Prime's original programming line-up, which currently includes the Steven Spielberg produced Extant, and Ridley Scott's The Man in the High Castle.
Landing the ex-Top Gear presenters, as well as ex-producer and creative force behind the show Andy Wilman, is quite the coup for Amazon. At its peak, Top Gear was the most watched factual program in the world, with a global audience of around 350 million people a year. Even if only a few of those people pay to join Prime, Amazon could be looking at making a very large sum of money.
Will you watch?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:27PM
TFA makes a mistake - Top Gear is not a car show, or a factual show in the traditional sense. It is a comedy show in car drag, and it happens to inform you about cars along the way.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:59PM
FTFY
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gallondr00nk on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:58PM
Agreed. I can't stand the fucking thing.
A friend of mine summed it up as a car show whose target audience are people who drive identical Ford Focus diesels but think they're car buffs because they want a Bugatti one day.
I remember one particular show, not long after the TVR factory in Blackpool had closed, where Clarkson put on a sombre voice and sadly stated that Britain doesn't have any car companies left. This is the same Clarkson that had mindlessly lanced pretty much everything that high volume car companies in Britain had produced since the 70's, regardless of merit.
It's just a themed entertainment show, and a very successful one. Going on Amazon suggests that's it's pretty fucking long in the tooth now, and I doubt it'll last much longer.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @11:00PM
Your friend is a fool. He should have kept his mouth shut - and so should you - rather than revealing this fact to the world.
I loved Top Gear, for me it was one of the funniest semi-factual shows in existence. They don't review street cars, they review high end cars (and I skipped those bits). They went on semi-scripted scavenger hunts, completed semi-scripted skits, and argued with each other. I watched for the stunning camerawork of locations that I will likely never get to see first-hand, and the talented yet quirky (and sometimes really cool) editing. I say this as a cameraman/VT editor who works in TV.
Taking Top Gear seriously is as wrong-headed as taking Mythbusters seriously.
Could that be simply because you haven't bothered paying attention?
Top Gear isn't going anywhere. It's staying on the BBC with a new presenting team. Clarkson et al are going to Amazon. People will follow them because they want to see the presenters goof around, not the show.