We’ve known for a while now that The Grand Tour as we currently know it would be going away. Back in January, Clarkson, who was fired from Top Gear for punching a producer over a sandwich, told The Times of London that he’s too “unfit and fat and old” to keep making the show. So with the old crew moving onto greener pastures, that’s the end of The Grand Tour, right? We’re just packing up and moving on? According to Yahoo News, not necessarily.
Amazon apparently plans to keep the show going, this time with a different set of co-hosts. It is not clear at this time who will replace Hammond, May and that guy who has a disturbing level of hatred for Meghan Markle. It’s also unclear whether the rebooted version of the show will stick with the current specials-only format or whether producers will try to go back to something more like Top Gear, which they originally tried but later moved away from.
This also isn’t the first time we’ve heard about the possibility that Amazon would bring in new hosts. In June of last year, Hammond told the Radio Times, “I mean, some people have said we’ve been canceled. But really we’re getting quite close to the end of our contract, but we didn’t really have any particular plans to keep going because we’re all really just getting a bit old. It might be time to let someone else have a crack at it.”
The company producing the new series will reportedly be Studio Lambert, which is also behind reality shows such as The Traitors, Gogglebox and Squid Game: The Challenge. We’re not entirely confident that a reality show production company will be able to make The Grand Tour a hit again, but you never know. It could happen. Whether or not that’s the case likely depends on who ends up hosting the reboot.
As for the original trio, their final special takes place in Zimbabwe and will air later this year.