BBC’s Top Gear is undoubtedly one of the most viewed and loved auto show in the world and it would not be an exaggeration if we say the credit goes to its team, especially Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. This trio has been working together on the show for ages now and when the BBC fired Jeremy, the remaining two opted to go with Jeremy. Sometime later, May ruled out the possibility of working for some rival company, but now, we smell fish.
Last week the news was out that Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, the famous trio from Top Gear, were facing some legal difficulties.
It was rumoured that the three and Andy Wilman, the former Top Gear executive producer, were really close to signing a deal with ITV for a brand new car show. (So much for not working with rival TV Channel)
There was just one tiny problem that’s holding them up to sign the deal, the clause in their BBC contracts, which restrains them to appear in any of rival British TV channels for two years. This duration will be counted from the time they left the BBC.
ITV is UK based, so if they want to join, they need to find their way around it.
According to the Mirror, a legal loophole has been figured out by the crew and Jezza, helping them get out of the “non-compete” clause for now. What they will be doing is collaborating with an overseas production firm, which will have all the rights to air the show, but they will then sell rights around the world including to the ITV in the UK.
That’s just one possibility, the other could be signing a split deal with Netflix to air the new show 24 hours earlier than the normal broadcaster so there will be no legal issue to that. Now the ball is in trio’s court, whatever option they’ll choose, we’ll know soon.
