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BBC car enthusiast show Top Gear could be coming off the air permanently…. Say it ain’t so. Say it ain’t so.

Easily one of the greatest automotive television shows to ever grace the airwaves could be shutting down for good. No more Richard Hammond ripping around the test track. No more Jeremy Clarkson giving us quirky British sayings. No more Stig destroying speed records with hot new supercars. This is a sad day in television and an even sadder day in the world of motorsports.


According to Leftlane News, Top Gear will not be returning for another season this fall. The BBC did say that the popular show would come back for a summer special, but even the chances of that seem slim. Jeremy Clarkson ended the last season by saying, “We don’t know when we’ll be back” and told the U.K.’s Sun newspaper this past weekend that the show would not come back. The BBC, by contrast, is saying a new season is still on the way.

The problem is that Clarkson, Hammond, James May, the rest of the Top Gear crew want to keep the focus on the cars and what they can do. They want to continue comparing supercars. They want to continue giving us some actually useful information about everyday commuter vehicles. The BBC, on the other hand, wants to toss in more celebrities and shift the focus away from cars. They might as well call it America’s Next Top Model.

In this way, as sad as it may be, BBC’s Top Gear might be back in the fall, but it will be without the presenters we know and love, and the show will be distinctly different than its current incarnation.