BBC announces it will pause popular car show Top Gear
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Top Gear host Andrew Flintoff, seen here in a September 2023 photo, was seriously injured in a crash during filming in 2022.
PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON – The British motoring television programme Top Gear, one of the BBC’s most profitable and popular shows, will stop running after a presenter, Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff, was seriously injured in a crash during filming in 2022,
“Given the exceptional circumstances, the BBC has decided to rest the UK show for the foreseeable future,” it said in a statement, adding that it was excited about new projects that it was developing with the presenters of Top Gear.
“We will have more to say in the near future on this. We know resting the show will be disappointing news for fans, but it is the right thing to do.”
After the car crash, which happened in December at the show’s test track in Surrey, England, the BBC halted production of the series, its 34th season. An independent company then conducted a safety and health review of the show, but the findings were not published, according to the BBC.
Top Gear has faced criticism of its safety protocol before. In 2006, Richard Hammond, then a Top Gear presenter, was in a coma for two weeks after crashing a vehicle going more than 460kmh on a Yorkshire airfield during a Top Gear stunt.
Flintoff, a former England cricket captain, reportedly reached a settlement with the BBC that was worth £9 million (S$15 million), according to The Sun and other news outlets.
The Sun published photos of Flintoff, 45, taken in September showing facial injuries. The tabloid, citing Flintoff’s legal team, reported that he was still recovering from “life-altering” injuries.
Flintoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The TV show, which debuted in 1977 as a regional show about cars and road safety and relaunched in 2002, is a cultural phenomenon. It is one of the BBC’s most widely watched shows worldwide. The broadcaster did not say whether the show would be revived at some point in the future.
Top Gear’s most recent season attracted 4.5 million viewers, according to the BBC, and the show generated about £20 million in profit each year as at 2015. Flintoff became the presenter of the show in 2019, co-starring with actor-comedian Paddy McGuinness and automotive journalist Chris Harris.
Top Gear was also in the headlines in 2015 when the BBC suspended Jeremy Clarkson, the popular host at the time, after he attacked a producer after a night of drinking. NYTIMES
