Original ‘Top Gear’ Team Burns Rubber, Breaks Amazon Records With ‘Grand Tour’

The original Top Gear trio is back — Richard Hammond, James May, and of course, the controversial Jeremy Clarkson. Their roaring return to television came last weekend courtesy of Amazon’s The Grand Tour, with all the fury of a Bugatti Veyron ripping down the Nürburgring.

Exact streaming numbers are known only to Amazon, but the company announced that it had become the service’s most-watched series ever. The Grand Tour‘s audience is already global, with millions of viewers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria, and Japan.

Exactly how much Amazon ponied up for the right to host the gang has been something of a mystery. Early reports pegged it at $160 million, or about $14.5 million per episode. Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Amazon rival Netflix, suggested to the Telegraph that it might have been closer to a quarter of a billion dollars. But then again, he’d have good reason to want to splash some cold water on this roadway.

Speaking of cold water, let’s not forget the reason this new show exists in the first place. In March of last year, Jeremy Clarkson’s relationship with the BBC ended after what they termed a “fracas.” The outspoken host was alleged to have called his producer a “lazy Irish” and punched him in the face. But, hey, every day is a new dawn … right?

The Grand Tour is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

Watch the Top Gear guys get quizzed by James Corden while racing through the desert:

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