The boys of “The Grand Tour” are in negotiations with Amazon for more seasons after the conclusion of Season Three – which will premiere on Friday, January 18, 2019.
In a recent promotional event held in London for the upcoming Season Three debut, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May discussed the future of their motoring show on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, which has already resulted in the coming and going of several early segments [“The American” and blowing up celebrities, among them] in the rear-view mirror.
“Genuinely, we love working for Amazon and they made it absolutely plain they love working with us,” Clarkson said. “We’re very popular on the feed, so we’re talking now about the future.”
May says “[The viewers] seem to quite like us, Amazon like us, we like working for them, they don’t interfere. It’s a very nice productive relationship.”
Season Three has even more changes from the previous two seasons and one of the most noticeable – aside from the move out of the tent – is the lack of celebrity guests.
“Amazon is able, unlike most television companies, to look at actually what people are looking at – they can actually see minute by minute,” explained Clarkson. “They said people are skipping over someone who was once in ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here’ and the runner-up of ‘X Factor’ competing against one another. They’re skipping over that because it’s a global show, and so we thought we may as well devote the time and effort that we would normally put into the guests into the films.”
“The message had come through clearly and can be read empirically from the data that people love the big films, the adventures, the trips, the travel, and seeing places in a way you don’t normally see them,” adds Hammond.
For the new season, the team filmed specials in Arizona and Nevada, Colombia, and Mongolia, and traveled extensively in Europe and elsewhere, including to Chongqing, China, and – in yet another newly added feature – the trio will have their own video game with playable elements simultaneous with the season’s run.
Season Three of “The Grand Tour” debuts on Amazon Prime Video next Friday – January 18, 2019.