Just days after the BBC announced that it would be putting the television show Top Gear on hiatus, its former hosts are leaving their very own program. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May have decided to stop filming Amazon’s The Grand Tour.
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Any readers hoping that the trio that brought Top Gear to international prominence in the 2000s and 2010s may be disappointed, though. Clarkson said that he’s done reviewing cars on film.
“We’re done. I have reviewed cars on TV since 1989. That’s 34 years,” the 63-year-old presenter told The Times. “And after next year, I won’t be doing that anymore.”
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Read: UK Top Gear Show Dropped For ‘Foreseeable Future,’ What Should Replace It?
Viewers will have at least one more opportunity to watch the trio on The Grand Tour. The announcement that they are leaving the show comes shortly after they returned from Zimbabwe to film a special that is set to air next year.
Fans of The Grand Tour may also be relieved to hear that new incarnations of the show are being explored by Amazon, according to Fozia Khan, Amazon’s head of unscripted programs in the U.K. told Deadline. Meanwhile, Clarkson will continue to appear on the streaming service as Clarkson’s Farm has been renewed for a fourth season.
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His (former) co-hosts also have other TV gigs to fall back on. James May’s Our Man In… series sees him traveling the world, while Richard Hammond’s Workshop covers the host’s vehicle restoration business on Discovery+.
The trio first collaborated in 2003 when May joined the cast of BBC’s Top Gear. The show enjoyed immense popularity until 2015 when Clarkson was dismissed due to an incident involving the assault of a producer during a filming session. Hammond and May chose to exit the show in solidarity with Clarkson. Shortly afterward, they embarked on the creation of The Grand Tour, a program that retained many elements of their previous show with only slight modifications to its format.
The new program was one of Amazon’s best performing original series upon its launch. However, much like BBC’s new Top Gear, it has struggled to recapture the viewership and energy of the earlier iteration of the series that concluded in 2015.
