As I’m sure many know by now, Clarkson has been dropped by the BBC. Not surprising considering the unprovoked attack on the producer of the show, especially one that meant he had to go to A&E. The fact the cause was no hot food being available after a days filming just exemplifies how petty this was, and being kicked off his own show will probably be seen as the inevitable outcome, or at least something that was going to happen one way or another.
While I’m a fan of Top Gear and enjoyed the show immensely, Clarkson deserved his punishment because, frankly, he needed a reality check. We don’t go to work expecting differences of opinion to be resolved by who can hit someone else harder, we go in expecting to solve problems sensibly by being reasonable. Sure, things don’t always go to plan and its frustrating, but in this case what was stopping Clarkson going out somewhere else to get some hot food? After all, he could have just driven out somewhere and even filmed some more on the car he was working with that day at the same time with those internal cameras they always have. Call it killing two birds with one stone.
At this point though, the real question is what is the future of the show? It certainly can’t continue around a format that was made to fit the presenters, as well as the cars that featured in it, and despite what the million or so people who think it’s okay to assault your boss think, signing a petition to reinstate Clarkson is the least likely answer of the lot. I remember that there was an article about how the petition for ‘No more Page 3’ was outdone by one to reinstate Clarkson in a few days, and frankly I have to agree that it isn’t a good indicator of the mindset of parts of our society. Getting back on topic though, if James May and Hammond don’t renew their contracts, which seems likely, then Top Gear would have to be rebuilt more or less from scratch.
Then there’s the issue of what Clarkson does next. While the BBC doesn’t want him any more other channels likely will, and there would be nothing stopping him doing something new that pulls the viewers with him, simply because he does have a considerable popularity going for him, wrong reasons or otherwise, that mean simply starting something will get him an instant viewer figure that puts the seal of approval on what he does, not to mention it’ll likely pull viewers away from Top Gear if it doesn’t reboot successfully enough.
I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen. Top Gear is going to continue but its hard to see it being as popular as it has been without the trio being on there doing it, but I don’t want Clarkson being just as successful from here on out as he’ll assume he’s untouchable and can do as he pleases which doesn’t set a good example for the rest of society. That all said, I hope May and Hammond go on to do well for themselves, as far as I know they’ve not done anything to the extreme of dumb like Clarkson has and they’ll hopefully do well in whatever they choose to do next.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Raving Over Sweet Nothings 