BBC Cancels Remaining Top Gear Episodes Amid Clarkson 'Fracas'
In the fallout of “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson’s “fracas” with a producer, BBC has cancelled the remaining three episodes of the current series.
BBC News adds that while Clarkson has been suspended after said fight with the producer “pending an investigation,” fellow presenters James May and Richard Hammond have not been suspended, per a statement by the BBC.
As for how Clarkson is handling the situation, he wrote in his column for The Sun:
I’m having a nice cold pint and waiting for this to blow over.
He has also taken to Twitter, discussing with Hammond and May what movies could be aired in place of this Sunday’s cancelled episode, and apologizing to Labour Party and opposition leader Ed Miliband about bumping Miliband’s “‘I’m a human’ piece” down from the top of the news headlines.
The suspension — of which over 250,000 fans are petitioning to have undone — comes after Clarkson was presented with a final warning last year by the BBC after footage of the presenter using a racist word in a nursery rhyme was found by The Daily Mirror.
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He can always do porn.
The BBC is a government agency. They have the ability to tax the public in the form of licenses for anyone in the UK that wants to watch anything on TV. 75% of their revenue is guaranteed. As such, is it any wonder that they feel little responsibility to give the public what they want? They get paid either way, so what does it matter if they have the most popular show in the world, or if they kill it like a bunch of thimble-dicked bureaucrats treating taxpayer money like their own and their interests like they're the public's?
News as of 3/16/2015: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11475058/Top-Gear-ratings-disaster-4m-viewers-switch-off-after-Jeremy-Clarkson-replaced.html Top Gear ratings disaster: 4m viewers switch off after Jeremy Clarkson replaced Top Gear's replacement in the schedules, a repeat of a Red Arrows documentary, drew just 1.3 million viewers - but BBC refuse to say how many complaints they have received
I smell a publicity stunt. Plus, the BBC is looking to begin offering their own video service (they had been claiming April but now say June) to compete with iTunes and this would make for some interesting exclusive content...