Jeremy Clarkson announces new season of The Grand Tour with major change
Jeremy Clarkson has confirmed that The Grand Tour is set to come back later this year.
The show began as a spin-off of Top Gear following the dismissal of Jeremy Clarkson over his punching of producer Oisin Tymon.
This led Richard Hammond, James May, and co-creator Andy Wilman to follow him in departing the hit BBC motoring show.
Despite many having concerns over the decision to take the original cast out of their comfort zone, as many parts of the Top Gear format were copyrighted by the BBC, The Grand Tour was a huge success, running for eight years.
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James May, Richard Hammond, and Jeremy Clarkson will not be returning however, with an all-new cast set to star.
Clarkson has released a new video in which he goes over the 'CVs' of the candidates applying to be new presenters, with him jokingly throwing away the CV of James May.
Francis Bourgeois, James Engelsman and Thomas Holland are set to be the new hosts of the Prime Video show.
Clarkson speaks positively about Engelsman and Holland, whilst describing Bouregois as the 'train man from the internet', noting that he has a 'cycling proficiency' qualification.
Bourgeois, best known for being a viral TikTok trainspotter, is described in the press release as a 'secret petrolhead', and will be joined by Engelsman and Holland, who are YouTubers behind the channel Throttle House.
The show is returning for a six-part series, which Prime is promising to be a 'globe-trotting series' in which they answer motoring's most difficult and absurd questions.
The trainspotting TikToker Bourgeois said: "The saying ‘big shoes to fill’ spring to mind. Well, in this case it’ll be like Mo Farah running in Size 14 wellies — it’ll be a little awkward at first, perhaps blister inducing but will overall be an interesting watch."
Engelsman pointed to the fact that he has worked with Thomas for 'a decade' making films about cars, and joked: "Who knew that all this time, the one ingredient that was missing was a Francis Bourgeois? Let the car adventures commence."
Catch up on previous The Grand Tour episodes for free
Holland meanwhile seemed to join Bourgeois in being self-aware in the gargantuan task the trio faced, joking that his first reaction to finding out they were replacing Clarkson, Hammond, and May was 'only a moron would take that job'.
Fans of the show flocked to Clarkson's Instagram to celebrate the news, with one saying: "HOLY COW IT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING."
Others however are more skeptical of the return. One popular comment read: "There's no way it will be the same as before but if the trio is still working behind the scenes then maybe it's worth a shot."
The first attempt to replace Top Gear and The Grand Tour trio Clarkson, Hammond, and May failed pretty spectacularly, with radio host Chris Evans and Friends star Matt LeBlanc stepping into the driver's seat.
Though the format eventually found success with Freddie Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness, and Chris Harris, this was eventually cancelled due to Flintoff's horror car accident.
Assuming Clarkson, Hammond, and May are still involved, however, there is faith among fans that maybe this time the formula will be just right, and with Prime Video taking a big risk on fairly unknown commodities, it is sure to be a fascinating watch.
Topics: The Grand Tour, Amazon Prime, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin