It is being reported that the BBC has suspended JC because of a problem with a show producer, it is said he took a swing at him. As of now the show is not airing next Mondays episode. I hope they get it together I would hate to loose my favorite show. Yes Clarkson is an ass, but his lack of political correctness is what is so good. :frown2::frown2::incazzato:
Yeah, the show needs all three. The year Hammond was out, the season was not so good. Hopefully this is a major, long overdue slap on the wrist and nothing more.
The show is done for the year. The rest of this year's episodes (2 or 3) will not air, and the show may be done for good. Clarkson really violated his double secret probation this time. Official details: BBC News - Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear host, suspended by BBC after 'fracas'
Clarkson is the Dave O of the BBC. Hope he can return after his timeout & time in the woodshed. :fingerscrossed:
To be honest, I think that the show (which was the best automotive show by a factor or 10) has run its course. After all these years, I think they are struggling to find that original spark that they had. I wouldn't be surprised if JC is happy to have it end. I was also amused to read in an article that it was the highest-rated 'Fact Based Show'. Fact based? Watching Top Gear for good information on cars is like watching The Simpsons for good information on being a parent. Nonetheless, I'll miss it. For those who have been living under a rock, please look up the new bard of automotive enthusiam: Chris Harris. He's not funny like JC, but he reminds us of why we do this.
Clarkson will be fine, but I'd wager that he won't be back on the BBC. Other networks will be chasing him like crazy. BTW, the rumor is that Clarkson took a swing at a Top Gear producer after he found out there would be no hot food to eat at the end of a day's shooting.
He's a huge money maker. And money will win in the end. Once the Beeb realizes how much revenue they'll be losing, they'll come around.
Maybe not - The BBC is public TV, and the other donors and the government may say, "Enough is enough."
Yeah, the BBC aspect throws a wrench into things. The show is hugely popular worldwide, but the BBC is not a private corporation, their pressures and motivations are much different. Thing is, they can still put out a good episode--the ambulance episode pretty much stands up as a classic--although they're not consistently as good as they were in the past, they're still "good enough" to warrant continuing on IMHO. Hope this all works out in the end; if Clarkson would take the Prima Donna thing down just one notch, it'd be fine. It's gotten progressively worse over the years; at some point it's just not worth it anymore. Hopefully sanity will prevail.
Maybe it is time for a re-boot of the show to draw in the next generation of Top Gearheads or bring back those who have gotten tired of the current host (which surprisingly is a lot of people based on what i see posted on different forums or in the comments on Jalopnik). I would be ok with Chris Harris leading a new group of host for an updated version of TG. Who else would you have join him?
It wouldn't be top gear with Chris Harris. It would be more like Top Speed. What makes Top Gear so good is the chemistry between the three, all have good senses of humor in entirely different ways. I was surprised how much of a hit the show took when Hammond was off of it after the accident; part of it might have been the pall cast over the show itself from the accident itself, but still, even though I appreciate Clarkson's and May's sense of humor more than Hammond's, he really was sorely missed. It will be extremely hard, if not impossible, to repeat that dynamic. Top Gear with different hosts I suspect will fail, just like the U.S. version did. I'd hate to see the show become a parody of itself; better to end it.
I think that whole brouhaha is enormously entertaining. I think the entire thing was planned to bring more attention to the show and improve it's ratings. Clarkson will be back.
I agree the show more likely than not will be back. I disagree that this was to bring more attention and improve ratings; that might work in the middle of season, but basically to cancel three shows at the end of the season, not so much.
His twitter handle is @harrismonkey and he has referred to himself on occasion as the little brown man. How ironic is that?
Clarkson also knows they need him more than he needs them. He can retire and spend his days counting his many, many bags of money. There would be no one stroking his ego, though, and I don't know how long he'd want to put up with that.
He doesn't even need to retire, he makes quite a bit of money writing for the newspapers. You're right; they need him more then he needs them, and that's a huge part of the problem; he has very little incentive to change if it's that important to him to be a diva. It's childish; if he gets the show cancelled because of his behavior, he knows damned well most people are going to blame the BBC, not him. And he just might be childish enough to do it. The thing I wonder is, are the three of them just tired of doing the show? From the twitter going back and forth, May and Hammond don't seem to broken up about it, they're joking with Clarkson over the whole cancellation thing. What a way to end it--thumb your nose at the BBC, and have the BBC get all the fallout.
^True^ Harris does not have the sense of humor that any of the three have, so the show wouldn't work. If I were a producer I'd call it a day for TG, and grab Harris for a rival show to the soporific Fifth Gear--They'd put Tiff & Co. out of business in three months. Don't try to be funny, just bring the passion to the cars the way Chris does.