The Grand Tour, one of Amazon Prime’s most popular shows, will officially air on regular TV, after a sneak peek video was released by Australia’s Channel 7 network today. This news comes just weeks after a boss of the streaming giant refused to rule out the possibility of that happening.
Roy Price, the boss of Amazon Studios, was asked at the Edinburgh Television Festival last month if he would ever “rule out” selling repeats of the show featuring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, he said he would not, but added that he was pleased with its performance on his service and wanted more series.
“I would expect more down that road. That show has the scale that we’re looking for ideally… I would take four more of those any day,” he told delegates in the session chaired by outgoing Channel 4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt.
But confirmation that Amazon has already started selling the rights to The Grand Tour to broadcasters around the world raises the intriguing prospect of Clarkson and Co returning to terrestrial television in Britain. There’s even the potential for the show to air on the BBC. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
At this stage only Australian viewers will be able to watch the first season of The Grand Tour for free on Channel 7 when the episodes begin to air in October, but we expect similar announcements to be made by television networks around the world – especially those in countries where Top Gear used to be popular.