The BBC have confirmed that Jeremy Clarkson’s contract will not be renewed after an incident with a producer earlier this month. This means the Top Gear show as we all know it will never be the same again.
Clarkson was found guilty of “physical altercation accompanied by sustained and prolonged verbal abuse of an extreme nature”. According to the statement, producer Oisin Tymon was attacked physically for about 30 seconds. The attack was halted at the intervention of a witness. He had to be driven to a nearby hospital A&E department for an examination.
“It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract. It is not a decision I have taken lightly. It is not a decision I have taken lightly. I have done so only after a very careful consideration of the facts and after personally meeting both Jeremy and Oisin Tymon,” said Lord Hall, the director-general of BBC.
Nothing else has been announced for now other than the fact that the BBC is determined for Top Gear to continue as a show next year. We know Clarkson won’t be part of the show, but the questions now are who will replace him, and will May and Hammond require replacements as well?
Gutted at such a sad end to an era. We're all three of us idiots in our different ways but it's been an incredible ride together.
— Richard Hammond (@RichardHammond) March 25, 2015
Official statement by BBC director-general Lord Tony Hall:
It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract. It is not a decision I have taken lightly. I have done so only after a very careful consideration of the facts and after personally meeting both Jeremy and Oisin Tymon.
I am grateful to Ken MacQuarrie for the thorough way he has conducted an investigation of the incident on 4th March. Given the obvious and very genuine public interest in this I am publishing the findings of his report. I take no pleasure in doing so. I am only making them public so people can better understand the background. I know how popular the programme is and I also know that this decision will divide opinion. The main facts are not disputed by those involved.
I want to make three points.
First – The BBC is a broad church. Our strength in many ways lies in that diversity. We need distinctive and different voices but they cannot come at any price. Common to all at the BBC have to be standards of decency and respect. I cannot condone what has happened on this occasion. A member of staff – who is a completely innocent party – took himself to Accident and Emergency after a physical altercation accompanied by sustained and prolonged verbal abuse of an extreme nature. For me a line has been crossed. There cannot be one rule for one and one rule for another dictated by either rank, or public relations and commercial considerations.
Second – This has obviously been difficult for everyone involved but in particular for Oisin. I want to make clear that no blame attaches to him for this incident. He has behaved with huge integrity throughout. As a senior producer at the BBC he will continue to have an important role within the organisation in the future.
Third – Obviously none of us wanted to find ourselves in this position. This decision should in no way detract from the extraordinary contribution that Jeremy Clarkson has made to the BBC. I have always personally been a great fan of his work and Top Gear. Jeremy is a huge talent. He may be leaving the BBC but I am sure he will continue to entertain, challenge and amuse audiences for many years to come.
The BBC must now look to renew Top Gear for 2016. This will be a big challenge and there is no point in pretending otherwise. I have asked Kim Shillinglaw to look at how best we might take this forward over the coming months. I have also asked her to look at how we put out the last programmes in the current series.
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A very wrong decision they made!
So, for you, being a very good entertainer and a huge important star gives you the right to assault someone?
BBC is upholding values here at the expense of potentially losing one of their most popular programs and I have to applaud their resolve for this. Few have the backbone nowadays to stand up for good values.
Jeremy may be part of the secret recipe that has made Top Gear the big success it is today, but I agree with Mr. Hall: Jeremy went too far in that instance and his stardom should not be allow him to get off scot-free.
He has to be punished. And the police is looking into it, which is the proper procedure. He assaulted someone, the police investigates, it goes to a court and he gets punished.
What about Jimmy Seville. I’m sorry, but that guy went way further than Clarkson, and the BBC protected him. It’s a punch in the face of his victims that the BBC thinks a punch in the face is worse than sexually abusing 589 children, including raping some of them.
No doubt Jeremy Clarkson is one popularized the show Top Gear. But he is still a douchebag inmy opinion.
You can’t take him serious. That’s the important thing that many don’t seem to understand. His humor is a bit like mine… offending everyone just for the sake of it. Because he can get a joke out of it. He is a comedian.
Exactly, our government & Najib should learn from BBC in managing & making brave decision to punish those who abuse the harmony of our society by making racial statement esp. those Perkasa group.
Grumpy old man
Manners maketh man.
It’s such a pity of them to let Jeremy go, got to admit that he’s one of the main attraction of this show. Unfortunately, this person is a somehow ignorant and arrogant individual who doesn’t respect the people around making him a total brute who has been verbal abusing the top gear team. Something has to be done, I’ve been waiting for this moment for someone to teach him a lesson into his face. This is not how you should be treating people, more importantly, humans.
Show some respect at least, remember that it was the producers who brought the fame upon him today.
RIP Top Gear 2002-2015
shall the new program called Reverse Gear, instead of Top Gear?
we still need to know the outcome of the LaFerrari, 918 & P1 race
They might as well cancel the show altogether, they will milk the brand now, with Jeremy gone.
Yes, Richard and James is contractually still there, they are funny as well on their own right. However, without Jeremy, the chemistry wouldn’t be the same.
Their contract lasts for 5 more days…
The 3 of them could start a cooking show and I bet it’ll still be fun to watch
For all I care, if they start doing a new TV show where they just sit and do nothing, I will still watch them.
How hard can it be?
It’s been rumoured Chris Evans has been offered the job! (BBC radio 2 Breakfast Show presenter)
And he denied and refused to star in the show.
Top Gear is no longer Top Gear without Jezza. RIP.
Yeah, and Chris Evans (who isn’t that great anyway) said no. Not interested.
Chris Evens Breakfast Show on Radio 2 is seriously Noxious high piched chatter, probably the worst deejay on Radio 2. Steve Wright is better. Can think of a worst replacement for Clarkson. But there is some merit to the suggetion of Rowan Atkinson.
Dang that autocorrect, I wanted to say, I can’t think of a worst replacement for Clarkson!
For the sake of gender equality i think vicky butler henderson should replace the orang utan.
Top Gear without Clarkson… is like nasi lemak with no sambal…
I’m sure anybody from ‘Driven’ Malaysian series or Karamjit Singh will be considered as a replacement for Top Gear Season 2016.
The BBC will lose a ton of money. I doubt any foreign TV station will buy the rights to Top Gear for next year, and if they do, at a much lower price.
I suppose it will be a factual motoring show again, think Fifth Gear. There will be a couple of viewers, similar figures to what Fifth Gear may be able to get, but that’s it. I’m not interested in watching, if I want to watch car reviews I’ll watch Carbuyer.
I’m curious what will happen to Top Gear Live. And where Clarkson will go.
Hammond and May already said they won’t do it without Clarkson, hopefully they will stay true to their word so they can move whereever Clarkson will go.
My favorite would be Netflix, maybe for the UK branch of Netflix, so they won’t have to move? Netflix would be stupid to pass up on this chance. Andy Wilman and the others working on the show will move too I hope.
Poor Oisin, he said he wanted to work on Top Gear. Maybe he will still have work at BBC, but on what? He may still produce something, but… what if it is some stupid daily soap? Whatever it is, it will be a big step down from Top Gear.
The BBC made a very bad decision. Yes, Clarkson needs to be punished. But not by kicking him out. Give him a pay cut and make him work on a show he really hates. Make him sit next to Simon Cowell in X Factor. Make him moderate a daily morning show for a couple of months. Make a show where he has to be with people he offended the most. Argentineans. Lorry drivers. etc. There are plenty of creative ways out of this mess, that could even make the BBC money. Instead they throw out money like that… unfortunately there are no share holders that can punish them for this nonsense. And is Clarkson really punished? He is set to earn more than ever before.
It’ll be a loss even if they tried to retain him and punish him with shows he dislikes. They have yet to negotiate a new contract and if that contract isn’t favorable for ol’ Clarkson, he could just turn it down and walk off. Unless he’s very attached to doing the show (which, in itself, is quite a distinct possibility).
But still, this is the end of Top Gear as we know it. How it will end up later on, is anybody’s guess.
He said he likes working at the BBC. I’m sure he could have easily walked away long ago for a better offer, that he didn’t shows his attachment to TG and the BBC.
A friend just suggested sending Clarkson to anger management, and have that turned into a TV show. Make him drive a car he hates, say a Perodua Myvi, or the Morris Minor or whatever that old car was they hated so much. And try to anger him all the time.
Sounds like a great show, and reasonable punishment for Clarkson.
BBC still owes other international broadcasters a full series, if they dont deliver, they might find themselves in a losing alot of money…
BBC owns the brand ‘top gear’, their most creative and profitable but sadly it had to come an abrupt end…
Best show ever
They are already late in delivering. I hope other broadcasters, all of them, are readying lawsuits demanding money from the BBC. And of course won’t buy the show next year.
Kudos to BBC for showing class and integrity. Jeremy Clarkson is just a twat for behaving like he did. Assaulting people for not feeding him properly? Who does that?
There was more leading up to the incident. Apparently it was a bad day, things went wrong, and Clarkson is in a difficult place right now, after a divorce etc. It doesn’t excuse the punch, but it should put things into more perspective.
In any case the punishment by far exceeds what has happened IMHO, and the biggest victim will be Oisin and the BBC. There are a ton of unhappy fans now, some of whom may not be too happy with Oisin, and might resort to violence. Also the show he loved to work on is effectively being cancelled. Enjoy working on a show he doesn’t want to make… And good luck finding a job outside of the BBC after such a story. The BBC is set to lose a lot of money. On the other hand we have Clarkson, who will gain a lot from this story. His name is even bigger now. There’ll be a bidding war for him and his colleagues, I bet they will earn a lot more than they did before.
I don think the root cause was as simple as not feeding an angry comedian. I applaud BBC staying neutral with integrity but dosen’t mean I sympathized Oisin. Such heartred couldn’t be built up in 24hrs. That Timun fella must have pissed off Jeremy for quite sometimes.
You won know. … how ABT he was paid to agitate the popular guy? (Like our country … got PPL willing to be paid for being sodomized, paid to jump party, tell lies … etc.)
Anyone remembers what happened the last time Clarkson left the show? It went on for a year or two, and was then cancelled. Keep in mind that back then Clarkson was just one of several hosts of an ordinary motoring show. He wasn’t a superstar, and the concept was to review cars normal people would buy. When he came back that was completely altered, and the show got much more popular, even outside of England.
no more waching top gears.
re-run can… i just love the old episode series 10-18
Jeremy should just go solo with ITV or SKy. Or?
IMO, for Top Gear to have any chance of survival is to get Chris Harris to replace Clarkson. Chris is funny in his own right and is obviously as passionate about cars as Clarkson. He has been doing a good job when he was with Evo and /Drive and doing well on his own show Chris on Cars. He will obviously be different and the show will be less of a satire but it has the chance to tread the middle ground between the serious Fifth Gear and the now previously satirical Top Gear. However all this will come to nought if Hammond and May decide to stick to their words and bail together with Clarkson to start a new show at a new network. That will obviously be the last nail in what is a very precarious coffin that Top Gear is currently lying in!
While I like Chris, he should keep his own show and not work for the BBC. I’d like the BBC to fail, and I think they will, even with Chris Harris. Just being attached to the BBC seems like a bad idea, people won’t like you from the start, just for replacing Clarkson & Co.
I agree. If Chris is a friend I would advise him not to take the offer (assuming one was made). It is a job that is truly set up to fail.
But still, he to me is the best bet that BBC has, instead of getting random hosts like Chris Evans to do it. Long and short, the days of multi-million dollar-ed multi-times over syndication of Top Gear is gone. And I’m sure BBC knows that but they will be dumb not to try…
All I can say is this is very very excellence news for ITV, Channel 4 and even Sky :).
So….. shall we start suggesting…….. Fastgear, Highgear perhaps :)
In my opinion the Beep has always been a joke!
His usual car reviews…No cars in the world are good enough for him!
A good decision made by BBC to guy that damaged our Kelisa….a payback time to him
dont get too personal.
that car was designed by Daihatsu. the plain looking and characterless car has nothing to do with perodua, which is just a mere assembly company.
serve ur right Clarkson…
it will be a better ending if BBC agreed to let clarkson finish the 22nd Season and host the 3 remaining episode, then BBC end the series for good. It will be much more EPIC & Comforting ending for All Parties
but the greedy BBC thinks that without Clarkson they’d still be able to make Top Gear as good as now. well i can guarantee they’re wrong, because Top gear is no Top Gear w/o Clarkson and Hammond + May agreed not to continue the show w/o clarkson.
so then all three unwisemen can jump to another Channel & Host a similar show.
Top Gear as a brand is dead without Clarkson, there isn’t two ways about it. But while I can’t deny Clarkson’s actions were uncalled for, it was indeed unfair for him to come back after a full day filming a multimillion dollar show and be served cold meat and soup. I mean, the BBC makes millions. If they know they would be late, why not just set up some simple warm meal – something better than cold food on a cold day.
For those of you that adores him…this is not the first time, besides assault, he has in the past made numerous racist and offensive comments (eg. referring to Malaysians as living on trees!), put down blind people, truck drivers etc. etc. etc.
Kudos to BBC for having the marbles to see beyond $$$!
You sir, maybe do not get the word of sarcasm. You’ll only get angry if you “perasan” about how other comments bout you. Truth or not that Malaysian still living on trees? Everyone knows the fact so just laugh it away and enjoy the show.
You sir, Sarcasm I can tolerate, racism, assault and demeaning people who are less fortunate that you I cannot….I assume you cannot tell the difference?
You don’t have any humor, do you? Poor you…
I am a big follower of TGUK. It is sad to see Top Gear UK without the 3 chaps. They have such a good chemistry and it shows! When one watched the “franchaised” TGs, the TGUSA, TGAUS etc feels really bland. Similarly with 5th Gear they are good but feels too serious.
good, now let the stig replace jeremy…or bring the the lady driver at nuburgring in.
She already has a job at the German Top Gear, D Motor.
who cares…
Just watch TG Korea lah.. haha
Maybe its an April Fool’s joke
boring news. who cares anyway.