Hammond, Clarkson and May Officially Signed to Amazon for New Series

By Christian Moe - July 30, 2015

It’s finally official. Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond are moving to Amazon to create their next car show. All three presenters, as well as Amazon announced the news this morning on Twitter. According to the Internet giant, the show will start filming almost immediately, with the show premiering in 2016. We have no information beyond that, but using the power of speculation, we can try to figure some things out.

Firstly, when Amazon says 2016, I would expect them to mean early. Like Q1 levels of early. The boys are already used to banging out two series a year with the BBC, which means a six-month turnaround. With the level of money and support they should be getting from Amazon, I see no reason why they can’t manage a six-month cycle now.

We have no idea what the format will be, but expect many of the same shenanigans. It was announced series producer Andy Wilman has followed the boys over, meaning both of the major creative powers who created the Top Gear behemoth are on board.

You can likely expect at least 30 episodes of “Amazon Gear.” We know the Top Gear crew liked to aim for 10 episodes a series when they could, and the boys have signed on for three-year contracts. Even if they can only manage one series per year, that gives us a healthy chunk of shows to get excited about. Hopefully we get lucky, and we get closer to 50 or 60 shows.

If you are wondering why the boys went with Amazon over Netflix, it’s all about reach. Netflix actually has a very small market worldwide. All of Asia and Australia, as well as huge chunks of Europe have no Netflix access, so going with Amazon gives the trio a broader audience to reach. Also, with Netflix already having a huge stable of original shows, and Amazon playing catch-up, I bet Amazon was willing to cut a much bigger check to make this deal happen.

If you’re worried about more costs to access your favorite car hosts, fear not. While Amazon’s prime membership fee of $99 a year sounds steep, it breaks down to just $8.25 per month, which is actually cheaper than Netflix. If you have a .edu email address, you can also get access to student Prime pricing which is only $49 a year.

That’s all we have for now, but with the boys being active on Twitter, and the promise that filming will start soon, I expect lots of fun news about this new venture to leak post-haste. We promise to keep you in the loop, especially if they do any wild comparisons with the Corvette.