Former BBC stars opt for online giant rather than ITV and Netflix for new motoring show to launch next year

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have been signed up by Amazon for a new motoring show to rival the BBC’s Top Gear.

The trio’s new show will be broadcast on Amazon’s on-demand TV service, with the US giant beating off competition from ITV and its online rival, Netflix.

The announcement on Thursday follows months of speculation where Clarkson and his former Top Gear colleagues would go after he was axed by the BBC earlier this year following a fracas with a producer.

Top Gear's Chris Evans signs up former Big Breakfast producer Read more

He will reunite with his former co-presenters on the new show, along with its former executive producer Andy Wilman.

Clarkson, Hammond, May and Wilman have signed a three-series deal with Amazon. Production on the first series will begin soon and it will launch next year.

The new show does not have a name yet, with the Top Gear brand belonging to the BBC.

Amazon UK announced the deal on Instagram using the hashtag #Drive2Prime.

Amazon UK announces the deal on Instagram

It will be available exclusively to subscribers to Amazon Prime, which is home to a huge archive of films and TV shows and a growing number of original programmes made by Amazon including the Golden Globe-winning comedy Transparent and Victorian crime drama Ripper Street.

Like Clarkson and his fellow presenters, Ripper Street was picked up by Amazon after it was dropped by the BBC.

New Amazon productions in the pipeline include Woody Allen’s first TV series and Ridley Scott drama The Man in the High Castle.

Top Gear, one of the BBC’s most valuable shows generating about £50m a year for its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, will return to BBC2 next year with an all-new lineup headed by Radio 2 breakfast DJ, Chris Evans.

In a joke at the expense of the BBC, Clarkson said: “I feel like I’ve climbed out of a biplane and into a spaceship.”

May added: “We have become part of the new age of smart TV. Ironic, isn’t it?”

Hammond said: “Amazon? Oh yes. I have already been there. I got bitten by a bullet ant.”

Jay Marine, vice-president of Amazon Prime Video in Europe, said: “Customers told us they wanted to see the team back on screen, and we are excited to make that happen.

“Millions of Prime members are already enjoying our ground-breaking original shows. We can’t wait to see what Jeremy, Richard, James and the team will create in what is sure to be one of the most globally anticipated shows of 2016.”

He added: “This is a golden age of television, a great time for TV makers and storytellers.

“Our approach is to give programme makers creative freedom to be innovative and make the shows they want to make. This is just the start, you should expect to see more world-leading talent and the biggest shows on Prime Video.”

Final Top Gear broadcast to give Clarkson, Hammond and May closure Read more

The final Top Gear featuring Clarkson, Hammond and May was aired on BBC2 last month, watched by more than 5 million viewers.

Ahead of its screening, executive producer Wilman, a school friend of Clarkson who came up with the modern Top Gear format a decade ago, said: “All we know is that we want to stay together and carry on making a car show.

“There is a will for it – the public want it, broadcasters want it – so the stars are aligning in the right way. Once this show’s gone out and we’ve got closure, we’ll crack on.”

Wilman said he was not worried about not being able to take the Top Gear name with them.

“I’m not worried about that,” he said. “It went global because of Richard, James and Jeremy, and grew at a time when channel loyalty, schedules, all those pillars of traditional TV watching, have fallen away ... We are looking for a global platform.”