James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond starring in “The Grand Tour”
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We can finally confirm that the new car show starring former Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May will be called The Grand Tour.
The new show will premiere this fall on Amazon Prime and is already being billed as a Top Gear rival.
Few details have been released but judging by the new name and comments made on the respective hosts’ Twitter accounts, the format will be a lot like the previous Top Gear Christmas specials, where the trio travel the world with an assortment of vehicles.
So, the Grand Tour (GT for short) will come from a tent, which we will put up in a different location every week. Your town?
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) May 11, 2016
Some of those vehicles will likely include Ford Motor Company’s [NYSE:F] Focus RS and Mustang, as well as the famous hypercar trio made up of the Ferrari [NYSE:RACE] LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder.
We can also expect Top Gear’s same high-quality production for The Grand Tour. Former Top Gear producer Andy Wilman, who like Hammond and May chose to quit after Clarkson was fired, has also joined the new show. Wilman is credited as being the brains behind much of the style and humor of Top Gear. And Amazon has provided a generous budget. It’s rumored around $250 million has been budgeted for three 12-episode seasons.
The announcement of The Grand Tour comes just as the BBC gears up for the launch of the new season of Top Gear starring six new hosts including American actor Matt LeBlanc. The new season of Top Gear starts later this month on British network BBC2 but will eventually be available on Netflix. A handful of trailers have been released in the lead up including an extended trailer just this morning.
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