{"id":94535,"date":"2015-07-30T12:29:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T10:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=94535"},"modified":"2015-07-30T14:19:01","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T12:19:01","slug":"clarkson-hammond-and-may-heading-to-amazon-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/94535\/clarkson-hammond-and-may-heading-to-amazon-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Top Gear hosts head to Amazon TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon has succeeded in pulling off\u00a0one of the biggest coups in TV history by signing former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May for a new car show on its streaming service.<\/p>\n

The programme will air on Amazon Video in 2016 and will be produced by former Top Gear executive Andy Wilman.<\/p>\n

Clarkson, known for creating controversy on a number of topics, was fired from the BBC earlier in 2015 following a “fracas”, where he punched Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon in the face during an argument about catering.<\/p>\n

Clarkson was replaced on Top Gear\u00a0by Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans.<\/p>\n

Top Gear is one of the most popular TV shows in the world, with an estimated global viewership of 350 million people.<\/p>\n

It is one the BBC’s most powerful global brands, with reported estimates revealing\u00a0that the show makes \u00a3150 million (R3 billion) annually in revenue for the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

In the UK, episodes draw as many as 6 million viewers. When Clarkson left the show, it lost over 4 million viewers – after 5.1 million tuned in to see the former host’s last show.<\/p>\n

Following Clarkson’s exit, his Top Gear co-stars May and Hammond turned down a \u00a34-million (R80 million) offer from the BBC to return to Top Gear, so that they could launch the new show with Clarkson.<\/p>\n

\"Clarkson,<\/a>

Clarkson, Hammond and May coming to Amazon Prime<\/p><\/div>\n

The UK’s Daily Mirror previously reported that Netflix was the platform that would most likely lead the trio’s return.<\/p>\n

The three dropped hints about a new show during their recent live tour in South Africa, where Hammond suggested that they would soon be working from America.<\/p>\n

According to the UK’s London Evening Standard, the Amazon deal commits the presenters to three seasons of the show, which has not yet been named.<\/p>\n

Work on the first season is reportedly expected to start in the Autumn.<\/p>\n

More on Amazon<\/h3>\n

Amazon buys video streaming service Twitch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazon opens up to auctioning<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazon may take its drone project elsewhere<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazon has snatched former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May for a new car show on its streaming service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":94537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5554],"tags":[25,10223,10225],"class_list":["post-94535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-active","tag-amazon-video","tag-top-gear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94535"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94567,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94535\/revisions\/94567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}