Amazon Reckons Spending Stupid Money On Clarkson And Co Is A “Safe Bet"

While an actual figure hasn’t ever been officially confirmed, it’s well know Amazon Prime paid a lot to secure Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May for a new motoring show. In fact, $250 million was reported at some point, although it wasn’t clear how much of that was wages and how much was budget set aside for making awesome car films.

Speaking to The Guardian, Amazon Prime Video’s European chief Jay Marine wouldn’t comment on the actual figure, but insisted that the ex-Top Gear trio is more than worth it. “We talk a lot at Amazon about making bold bets but…this is on the safer side of bets I’ve made,” he said. Marine went on to say: “Have we paid a lot of money? For sure…But these guys are worth a lot of money. It’s very rare that you find something like this where a team come along who already have a built-in worldwide audience that I would argue is unique.”

Clarkson and co will also be treated to a much less meddlesome atmosphere than the one they experienced at the BBC. “The worst thing we could go and do is tell Jeremy, James and Richard how to make a great car show…They are in control. Those guys have a big budget and creative freedom and we are here to support them.”

One thing that is yet to be decided is exactly how the series will be released. Amazon often puts out large batches of episodes in a method it calls “binge-release,” but according to Marine, a more traditional episodic release format could still be used: “there is also something nice about a weekly cadence where people are all on the same episode and there is social discussion about what happened last night. Stay tuned, we haven’t made that decision.”