Amazon Prime Video is parting ways with Jeremy Clarkson mere weeks after his comments about Meghan Markle were published in British tabloid The Sun.
Sources tell Variety that the streaming service won’t be working with Clarkson beyond seasons of “The Grand Tour” and “Clarkson’s Farm” that have already been commissioned. This means that the notorious “Top Gear” presenter won’t be appearing in any new shows on Prime Video beyond 2024.
Prime Video already has a number of shows in the works with Clarkson, which are going to go ahead, but the decision effectively means that “Clarkson’s Farm” will end with Season 3 (expected in 2024). It also means that motoring format “The Grand Tour,” one of Prime Video’s biggest shows, will also come to an end. Variety understands the series will conclude after four more special episodes — the last of which will likely land in late 2024.
Prime Video declined to comment on this story.
Although the streamer didn’t make any public comment when Clarkson’s vitriolic column made international headlines in December, it’s clear the company was deeply unhappy behind the scenes.
In a fresh apology made by Clarkson on Monday, he says the streamer was “incandescent” about his tirade against Markle and Prince Harry.
In a lengthy statement posted to his official Instagram on Monday afternoon, Clarkson says, “I really am sorry. All the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head. This is me putting my hands up. It’s a mea culpa with bells on.”
The extensive apology for his December comments — in which Clarkson suggested Markle be made to “parade naked” through Britain while people “throw lumps of excrement at her” — comes a day ahead of a planned press conference for “Clarkson’s Farm.” (A press conference for Season 2 of the show, launching on Feb. 10, was scheduled just days prior to Clarkson’s comments.)
In his frequent Sun column, which was published days after the release of the second and final instalment of “Harry & Meghan” on Netflix, Clarkson wrote that he “hates” Markle on a “cellular level.”
The presenter issued a brief apology for his words on Dec. 19, saying he had “rather put my foot in it.”
“In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people,” Clarkson continued in a tweeted statement. “I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.”
The Sun column became the Independent Press Standards Organization’s most complained-about article since its formation in 2014. It drew almost 21,000 complaints. The Sun also made a rare apology, one full week after the article was published.
More to come.