by Top Gear has left the BBC for the foreseeable future following Freddie Flintoff’s accident and now there is a question mark over whether Amazon Prime series The Grand Tour will return.
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond started rival car show The Grand Tour after Clarkson, 63, was sacked for punching a producer on Top Gear in 2015 and his friends quit the show saying: “We come as a pack .”
The Grand Tour has been a huge success for the past seven years running on Amazon Prime. But the three go back, and their friendship and television working relationship goes back 20 years.
There was even talk of the famous team leaving The Grand Tour and even returning to Top Gear – but there’s no way that’s going to happen as Clarkson has made this quite clear.
Clarkson said it would be “heartless” to replace former Top Gear presenter Flintoff.
So what is fact and fiction? Is it really the end of the road for the Grand Tour? Or are they going to take a different route with the show?
What do we know about the future of The Grand Tour?
TV favorites Clarkson, May and Hammond have filmed their final special episode of The Grand Tour in Zimbabwe.
It is publicly known that the contracts of the three presenters were soon up as James May revealed in June earlier this year.
Editing has begun on the special and fans will be pleased to learn that it is scheduled to air on the small screen later next year.
This isn’t the only episode Amazon Prime plans to drop on the Grand Tour in 2024.
The trio has made another special film The Grand Tour in Mauritania which will be launched in February next year.
No official decision has been made regarding the future of The Grand Tour with Amazon Prime.
Instead Amazon Prime is exploring different options for what the show will look like in the future – possibly without the three presenters at the helm.
The Grand Tour still looks like a green light.
What do Jeremy Clarkson and James May have to say about the end of The Grand Tour?
Clarkson recently admitted that the trio were “done” with the Grand Tour.
Asked if they were leaving, he told The Times newspaper: “We’re done. I’ve reviewed cars on TV since 1989. That’s 34 years. And after next year, I won’t be doing that anymore.”
In June earlier this year, May quashed rumors that The Grand Tour was being cancelled.
He told the Radio Times: “I mean, some people have said we’ve been cancelled.”
It came after Clarkson sparked outrage and later apologized for his column about Meghan Markle which made a controversial Game Of Thrones reference.
In the same conversation, May also revealed that the trio’s contracts with the show would be up this year, although he did not say when.
But in the same breath, the car enthusiast admitted that they might be “getting a bit old” to continue the show.
He admitted: “But we’re actually getting quite close to the end of our contract, but we haven’t really had any specific plans to continue because we’re all really getting a bit old. Maybe that it would be time to let someone else have a crush on him.”
Would Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May return to Top Gear?
When Clarkson, Hammond and May started to front Top Gear in 2003, it changed the show forever.
The motoring entertainment show – which first appeared on television in the 70’s – was a huge success and put the trio on the road to showbiz glory as they found world fame and had a lot of fun at audiences everywhere.
But when Clarkson was sacked by the BBC for punching a producer, his two friends stuck by him and left the motoring show for good.
Top Gear succeeded the famous car-loving trio of Chris Evans and Friends star Matt LeBlanc.
Evans, Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness got behind the wheel for Top Gear in 2019 but the show ended when Flintoff had an accident in December last year.
BBC recently announced that they were “sitting” the show for good.
Social media was abuzz with excited fans as Clarkson, May and Hammond made their big return to the show.
Among the comments, people speculated: “It is well known that they are coming back to the BBC to do Top Gear.”
Others said: “They’ll all be back on Top Gear for sure!!!”
“Top Gear replacement on the way to the BBC.”
Despite excitement building over whether the trio would return to the show, Clarkson made his feelings known about Flintoff’s replacement on Top Gear.
Clarkson wrote in his column in The Sun: “Sure, the producers could try to find a venue. But do you want that gig? Really?
“Because not only would you come across as a heartless t***, you’d be on a show that was written and produced every week by a newly animated and all-powerful health and safety department.
“And you’d be working for a corporation that basically likes bike lanes.”
While May said he was “very sad” to hear Top Gear had ended, he said the show needed a “rethink” before it could return to the small screen.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It needs to be rethought. It’s time for a new format and a new approach to the subject because the subject is not that interesting, I suspect, from the car was designed.
“And it would be a shame if an organization like the BBC didn’t have something to say about it.”
