Top Gear future threatened as May and Hammond refuse contracts
Richard Hammond (m) and James May (r) have refused new contracts
Author: MotorTorque Team
Published: 04 July 2008
Top Gear presenters James May and Richard Hammond will be out of contract by the end of July - following the end of the current series - after refusing new contracts.
The pair have flat refused new contracts that would see them paid significantly less than Jeremy Clarkson, who receives a share of commercial revenues. Clarkson has been promoting US and Australian versions of the show.
End of Top Gear?
The situation is currently described as a Mexican stand-off, with the BBC under pressure to cut down on astronomical pay deals for its top stars and arguing that the Top Gear show provides May and Hammond with their main claim to fame.
Meanwhile the two presenters are said to be digging in, and are unhappy at being viewed as second-tier talent.
Both May and Hammond have fronted a number of high-profile programmes for the BBC and other broadcasters since their rise to fame with Top Gear.
The current series of Top Gear concludes on 27 July.
• Meanwhile the programme has been rapped for showing Clarkson and May drinking gin while driving a Toyota Hilux to the Magnetic North Pole in the Arctic.
One viewer complained that this was "grossly irresponsible", a complaint the BBC Trust upheld despite the producer's defence that the act took place in an uninhabitable area of the North Pole where no drink driving laws existed.
Other complaints covered Clarkson's apparent suggestion that climate change did not exist, because the North Pole was cold.
Car adverts, music videos, the finest film car chases, and some stuff crashing. All here in our videos section.
MotorTorque has four pairs of silver tickets for Top Gear Live featuring Jeremy Clarkson and the team at the MPH 08 event at London and Birmingham.
Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has claimed that he once drove across London in a Bugatti Veyron at 186mph.
The BBC receives 65 complaints from viewers of the 'Top Gear does Ground Force' section of its Sport Relief charity show, as Clarkson, Hammond and May swap spades for shotguns.
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond will take the multi award-winning BBC TV Top Gear show on the road, as the live event goes worldwide.
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