Bad news everyone: Clarkson is in trouble – again.
Top Gear is the most popular motoring show “in the world.” It boasts an audience of 350 million viewers worldwide – that number excludes people who take part in Netflix binging sprees – and has won several awards for being the world’s most popular factual television series. Yet the show’s presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, tend to brand the show as “ambitious but rubbish.”
Jeremy Clarkson, one of the hosts of BBC’s popular series Top Gear, is once again in the spotlight for his abrasive and controversial behaviour.
Top Gear, indeed, has a deep automotive prowess, but is also enjoyed worldwide because of the presenters’ continuous goofball antics. The trio have done everything from building a “Hovervan” – a less-than-practical solution to Britain’s flooding – to, more recently, attempting to make ambulances more efficient, once again, in a less-than-practical way. Their ambitious projects, coupled with rubbish results, plus the wit and banter of the Top Gear hosts, have made the show a phenomenon.
These same qualities have also been renowned for landing the team in trouble time and time again. Jeremy Clarkson, loud, highly opinionated, and frequently described as “Orangutan-like” by his colleagues, has become well acquainted with the negative spotlight. Most recently, he has been involved in a “fracas,” which placed him on suspension from the BBC and has seen the remaining episodes of the series stripped from the future.
Clarkson…well acquainted with the negative spotlight…
Clarkson has been in the headlines several times in the past few years. This time, his name was uttered worldwide as a licence plate on the back of his Porsche stirred up negative emotions within the people of Argentina. A prior altercation, involving the use of a mumbled racial slur in a deleted, and then leaked film, also had the BBC placing Clarkson on thin ice. His most recent “fracas,” which came to light March 10, saw the BBC instantly pull the plug on Clarkson, and even more shockingly, Top Gear, after he reportedly hit a producer.
This is where the debate begins. Is it just that Top Gear has been pulled from the air simply to teach Clarkson a lesson? Within 24 hours of the announcement, 500,000 signatures on an online petition said it was not. This petition also demonstrates the theory of Top Gear being too big to fail. Could this be further reasoning for the BBC to put an end – hopefully, only temporarily – to the show? It would show the world, and Clarkson, that the BBC is not worried about having to put down a cashcow in order to teach a lesson.
But is it fair? In the opinion of this small-town university student, no. Punish Clarkson for his misdeeds, move the show to a later slot, place disclaimers for offensive content, sell it to a different network if need be, but don’t make the people, who have given the BBC and Top Gear years of loyalty, pay for the BBC’s problems.
“And on that bombshell,” let’s hope we will be seeing our beloved Top Gear trio on air again.