Love him or hate him I have all ways found Clarkson entertaining and very humor,s regardless of the subject matter and wish him and his top gear colleges all the best ,,,,I am certain all three will go on entertaining the mass,s in some form or another ,,,he is just to popular world wide to be gone for good ..........

The fact May and Hammond will leave when they let Jezza go speaks volumes. I'd love to work at a job with that kind of camaraderie.

It's an open secret that the BBC boss hated Clarkson and tried to get rid of him several times already. This clinched it.

Now that this is a non-renewed contract issue, I wonder if it improves the odds of the 3 of them working together elsewhere. They're not in breach of anything anymore, if they use a vaguely different format.

Then the BBC chief is a lousy businessman. Kill your prize rooster? Stupid. Better to let him age and slowly die, making money all the way to the grave.

Public sector in the UK... Strange bunch ! $ consideration probably did not enter his mind...(as much as it might have on a private, revenue driven channel)

It's actually a rare instance of a company and a CEO having some integrity and firing someone for just cause even though the employee makes the company a lot of $$. You'd never see this happen in the current U.S. business culture. :cool:

Top Gear was on an affiliate of BBC that was a for-profit business, not the public broadcasting site. Thanks for being informed, though. :cool:

Sounds like he was quite the prick, but funny on the show. If it were me, I'd say go find a thug on the street and have him wind him up a bit.
-C

Guy Martin would be a good choice to replace Clarkson, very easy to watch, funny too and speaks what he thinks

Top Gear was broadcast on BBC Two in the UK. BBC Two has the same funding source as BBC One, the UK television licence . BBC Two is a commercial-free, well-funded public service network.

And who do you propose to get to replace Hammond and May? It appears the three of them are a package deal, and I doubt either of them (Hammond and May) would do Top Gear without Clarkson.

And then - I keep wondering if this is just another typical Top Gear stunt, or if they planned on ending the show in this manner? Both seem to fit the show's modus operandus...

-Z

Perhaps they'll all get hired on at Sky for a whole 'nother project!

I'd replace them with little Tommy Cruise and Mr. T

I don't really see that as a problem. The trio had a good run but the show has been overdue for a re-tooling anyway. They're better of finding a new, younger crew and rebuilding. They may have some lean years at first but so? They've had them before.

I thought this was a sad day for automotive television. I really enjoyed the show, and let's face it, he made the show! I am hoping that Netflix can put something together with him, because the US version of TopGear is for lack of better words, nowhere close to it's British sibling.

Clarkson and his mates will laugh all the way to the bank........

You can't learn Clarkson, he's born gifted. TG will fall back into obscurity, like 1977 when it began.

I only saw the show a few times and saw nothing in it. But then, british humor is dry. They could find 3 monkies and be as funny.

They could always use the host from American TH


Course, Joe-Bob, Speeder & myself could take it over:p

They don't need another Clarkson, or May or Hammond. There's no surer recipe for failure than trying to replicate their chemistry. The current formula isn't the only way to make a good car show.

I agree, and assuming that May and Hammond also leave, I hope Top Gear goes a different direction. If they try to keep the current formula with different hosts, I can't see it ever working because they will be constantly compared to the original. I hope the show lives on in a different format, and I hope it is still good.

Not just yeah but heck yeah!

Redo the show with the cast from American chopper! Now that would be kewl!

Really the only direction the BBC can go from here is getting some hot women on the show. That always carried them through the lean years.

Anyone who punches Piers Morgan in the face has my support.

Fer sure. We need yet another car show where everyone screams and yells and fights through most of the show.

And contrived deadlines! Don't forget the ambiguous deadlines!

BBC stated that TG will continue, which is probably good news. But a lot of details need to be worked out.

A message from TopGear.com - BBC Top Gear

Hmmm.. perhaps the new Top Gear presenter should be someone who would be equally amusing, but in a very different way than Clarkson.

A Brit with extensive experience in comedic acting, a car lover, and has knowledge of driving (and crashing) exotic autos. Oh yes, if he was once a "star in a reasonably-priced car" and proved he could drive quickly and work well with the live audience, more the better.

He would never do it, but it is fun to think about TG with...... Rowan Atkinson.

Mr bean has too high a propensity to crash Mclarens...

That I could see.

Or John Cleese, or Eric Idle...

There are about a million clever Brits who like cars. It's not like that guy could drive or had any great automotive knowledge.

I can't abide Rowen Atkinson

I nominate Steve Coogan.

Whatever thet choose to do, it cant suck as hard as Top Gear USA.

You can bet that after their issues with Clarkson they won't host the show with 3 entitled white males again. The next batch will be younger with a mix of races and genders, and I expect we'll have four or five rather than just three. If I were producing it, I'd also give them an American ex-pat for everyone to pick on.

Mr. Bean's first guest should be Undercover Brother. And then let them crash expensive cars...

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That would be uniquely ironic, considering Clarkson's propensity for being non-PC.

I actually hope they go a totally different direction, as casting a new set of hosts to do a similarly formatted show is likely setting them up for failure. Chemistry can't be faked, and it will be a challenge to form a group with as much natural chemistry as the previous hosts.

Great idea. Change the name too....Fifth Gear would probably be a good name for a tv show.

Top Gear is no more a car show than a Briton in drag is the Queen.

The show worked spectacularly well for many reasons, none of them remotely related to cars.

Concerning the dust-up between Clarkson and the producer: it happens in high risk, high reward businesses and in this case, as mentioned, it is an excuse not a reason.