The Grand Tour host Jeremy Clarkson confirmed that Amazon plans to keep the show running, effectively discarding rumors that the company might drop the motoring show due to high running costs. However, the fourth season of the show will come with a changed format. The studio segments in the tent where the three co-hosts evaluated cars’ performances on a racetrack in front of a live audience will no longer be a part of the show. Instead, the segments are replaced by high-budget adventure road-trip specials.
This new format is not too different from the seasonal specials of Top Gear where the hosts previously appeared until 2015. According to the new agreement, the three hosts will make at least 4 roadtrip specials annually.
The hosts themselves are sad to see the studio segments go but unanimously agreed to change the show format. After 17 years of studio segments, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond are ready to move on. In the words of Clarkson: “It’s a really sad day. I will miss the banter with each other and with the audience. We’ve been doing that show for effectively 17 years—sitting around in studios, watching cars race around the track…there are only so many times you can watch a BMW go round the track.” The host was also reported tearing up at the last studio segment filmed for The Grand Tour season three, and claimed it was “the end of an era.”
In regulation with the new agreement, the trio, who are confirmed to remain working with Amazon, will develop their own Amazon Prime Video shows as well.