JimmyH: Regardless of what you think of JC, I suspect that when the dust settles he isn't actually the loser here.

He has already made a lot of money - and reports in the UK media are that other TV networks are already bidding to get him to do a motoring show, and that he may have been offered 10 million pounds to sign. Presumably May and Hammond would go with him as part of a package deal. They will probably wind up on network that gives them a lot more freedom to say things than the cloyingly-PC BBC, and will make a lot more money in the process.

The losers here look to be:

• The BBC, which will have to refund a lot of network purchasers of the episodes that won't be made, will lose a 50 million pound ($NZ 100m+) per anum revenue stream, and will have paid a lot of money to purchase the IP and branding associated with the show (ironically from a company that I understand JC part owned) only to discover that it now isn't worth nearly what they thought.


• The other staff on the show (many of whom presumably lose their jobs if TG now fails to be as commercially successful and is finally cancelled), and the hundreds of other staff at the BBC who will presumably get the chop when the BBC restructures to try and cut costs to deal with a 50 million quid a year revenue shortfall.


• The UK public (including the Guardianistas who so loudly called for his head) - as a fair amount of other programming was underwritten by the profitability of selling TG internationally, and presumably will now have to be axed.


• The fans of TG, of which I am one, who will lose a show they liked - even if the BBC trys to keep it going with an insipid facsimile under the same branding.

Which is something that I those who were banging the drum so loudly for his dismissal at least thought through.

(Personally, given TG's international popularity, I think it would be a stroke of absolute marketing genius for Netflix to snap the trio up with a juicy offer to make a new motoring show).