Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
May, Clarkson and Hammond will be travelling around the world for the show
Former Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May’s new show on Amazon’s streaming video service will be called The Grand Tour.
Unveiling the name, Clarkson said the new show would see them “hosting each episode in a different country”.
The trio, who will front three series on Amazon Prime, said name suggestions from fans had been “much appreciated”.
Meanwhile, the BBC revealed the new Top Gear series, fronted by Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc, will debut on 29 May.
The BBC Two show announced its return on Twitter, shortly after The Grand Tour was introduced.
Evans was named as Top Gear’s new host last year after the BBC opted not to renew Clarkson’s contract in the wake of his much-publicised “fracas” with Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon.
Clarkson later apologised and settled a £100,000 racial discrimination and injury claim from Tymon.
‘A new frontier’
The Grand Tour will launch this autumn and will be available to watch exclusively by Amazon Prime members.
The “round-the-world” format will allow customers of different nations to be in the audience as tickets are to be released through prize draws this summer.
The name befits the presenters’ wish to make a new show noticeably different from what they had presented before, which was mainly studio-based with pre-recorded segments and big set pieces.
Top Gear’s long-time producer Andy Wilman also left the BBC last year to join the presenters and work with them on the Amazon show.
The trio helped make Top Gear one of the BBC’s most successful shows
In a tongue-in-cheek statement, Clarkson said: “We’ll be travelling the world hosting each episode in a different country. It’s sort of a ‘grand tour’, if you like. So we’ve decided to call it ‘The Grand Tour’.”
In response, May remarked that he was underwhelmed by the name and had “wanted to call it ‘Nigel’, or ‘Roger'”.
“We needed a name, and they’re names,” he said.
Hammond on the other hand, was more positive, saying: “I already love camping, but this is something else”.
“We are like our pioneering and prospecting forebears, sallying forth into a new frontier of broadcasting.”
BBC