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.