When Jeremy Clarkson was fired from BBC's flagship car program Top Gear last year, fans feared the swaggering presenter would be gone from their screens forever. But he's back--in a different set of wheels.
Along with co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond, Clarkson has rebounded to helm Amazon Prime Video's new blockbuster series, The Grand Tour. The traveling car show, which first aired in November, became Amazon’s most-watched premiere in the streaming service's history and currently boasts a 97% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jeremy Clarkson, former host of BBC's 'Top Gear' has shifted gears with a new Amazon show 'The Grand... [+]
The company reported that it saw a record number of Amazon Prime subscriptions sold (save Prime Day super-sales) when the show debuted. Like its streaming service cohort, Amazon does not release viewing figures--other than to say "millions" tuned in to its first episode--but it seems that the 12-part show is already a hit.
It hasn't come cheap. Amazon, which has been beefing up its entertainment offerings on paid subscription service Amazon Prime, reportedly paid some $250 million to license the show for three seasons, according to competitor Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. That was $90 million more than its initial estimated pricetag of $160 million.
"It was about a quarter of a billion dollars," Sarandos, who made a play for the show, told the Telegraph. "It'll be interesting with Grand Tour to see how much of that is the players, who in many cases are big personalities, but what elements of Top Gear will people miss?"
"Obviously, [the budget is] slightly larger, but it's not $250 million," Clarkson rebutted, speaking in New York in November. "There are lots of nonsense figures being batted around."
You'd be forgiven for seeing sense in them. With Clarkson at the helm, Top Gear generated some $225 million in annual revenue for the broadcaster's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, according to Variety. Many Americans also watched the Clarkson-led show on BBC America, where Top Gear regularly ranked among the cable channel’s highest-rated shows.
The longtime host was let go in 2015 for an "unprovoked physical and verbal attack" on a producer, the BBC stated. The firing followed Clarkson's suspension after a "fracas" in which he was reported to have punched producer Oisin Tymon over post-wrap dining arrangements, according to The Telegraph.
Clarkson hosted Top Gear since 1988, bringing on co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond. Along with executive producer Andy Wilman, he devised Top Gear's one-hour format and helped ran all 22 series of Top Gear between 2002 and 2015, when it became the world's most widely-watched factual TV program seen in 212 territories. Its Top Gear magazine touts some 1.7 million subscribers.
Clarkson was BBC's highest-paid star, earning some $891,000 for his services in 2014 alone. According to reports, his salary was set to jump to $12.3 million (£10 million) on The Grand Tour, which would place him along the highest-paid show hosts. Clarkson refuted the figure and said, "it's all made-up nonsense." But it's likely his take-home is now in the seven figures, FORBES estimates.
Of the production budget, Clarkson won't reveal exact amounts: "It's not that much bigger than it was at the BBC, it's just we have to waste less of it on health and safety," he explained.
When Clarkson helmed the show at the BBC, it boasted a budget of some $556,000 (£450,000) an episode. Wilman, who is also the executive producer of The Grand Tour, has said the new show's production costs range between $1.2 million (£1 million) to $4.9 million (£4 million) an episode. Assuming an average show budget of $3.05 million an episode, that works out to over $36 million for the seasons, or some $109.8 million across the three promised seasons.
That eye watering budget has been put to good use on exotic locations and extravagant gadgets. Some 150 cars appeared in the program, including 52 that were destroyed, according to the show. Add in fighter jets, yachts and tanks, and it becomes a pricy operation.
"They're worth a lot and they know it," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said of Clarkson, May and Hammond to The Telegraph in August 2015, dubbing the show "very, very, very expensive."
Clarkson confirmed that the cohort, along with executive producer Wilman, license the show to Amazon through the show's production company, W. Chump & Sons. The production company was founded in May 2015 but incorporated two months later; they had signed with Amazon by August. According to documents filed with Companies House, Wilman, Clarkson, May and Hammond each hold an equal number of shares in the comically named W. Chump & Sons. (Wilman and Clarkson go back quite some time; the pair were classmates at the tony British Repton School.)
"The Amazons and the Netflixes offer a blank canvas--they just want to put out great stuff," said Wilman in press materials offered by Amazon Prime Video, citing the pressures of filming a show that fits in the mold of an existing network.
Clarkson now seems excited about expanding into the U.S., where Amazon Prime has some 63 million estimated subscribers. "America was always our weakest market," Clarkson explained. "One of the things I know that Amazon wants to do is extend our reach. We now face the job of selling it to the vast majority of America that didn't steal video from the Internet or didn't have BBC America."
With its weekly installments, The Grand Tour is also a play to get Amazon Prime more subscribers in the U.K., where it has a far smaller presence (estimates pegged its reach at 1.6 million households in March). Amazon Prime offers a 30 day free trial, but a yearly membership costs $99 in the U.S. and a sky-high $119 annually in the U.K.
New subscribers won't come easy: The Grand Tour is reportedly the most illegally downloaded show ever in the U.K., according to data analytics company MUSO. It pegged the number of illegal downloads at 7.9 million times for the first episode, shrinking to 6.9 million for the second episode and 4.6 million for the third.
Still, Amazon has high hopes for the show. It is at the forefront of the e-commerce giant's efforts for global expansion, which place it in direct competition with Netflix's recent international drive. The Grand Tour is now available to stream in 200 countries worldwide, though Amazon has remained fairly hush-hush about its plans to develop an international footprint.
In recent years, Amazon Studios has become home to award-winning shows including Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle. On the big screen, it also spent $10 million to purchase the rights to critic favorite Manchester by the Sea.
For his part, Clarkson appears glad to be rid of the BBC.
"The BBC is a tremendous organization," Clarkson said. "They're perfectly in tune with the times, provided the times are 1956."
