Comments on: Budget cuts for Top Gear UK

By: Bonners

Bonners — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:37:32 +0000

I like Clarkson alot but can’t see how he’s woth ten times as much as the other two. Even at $52k/ep it only equates to half a mil a year considering Top Gear is generally only about 10 eps at max. Good money I agree but……

By: Falcodore

Falcodore — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:57:11 +0000

Bloody accountants! take the funout of everything

By: Reckless1

Reckless1 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:28:40 +0000

For me, the show has always been about the personalities rather than the stunts or the cars. That’s probably why women love the show as much as men. That’s why TGAU was such a flop – the personalities repelled huge slabs of eager viewers. Now with JM taking over, people will watch again because of him; hopefully the other 2 will improve under JM’s tutillage.

The pay levels are not an issue – James gets less than Richard, but probably because he wants to commit less time to TG so he can pursue his other work. But it may be because he is the one that would be easiest to lose.

Jeremy is the show, so deserves the most pay.

By: Atlanta Car Rental

Atlanta Car Rental — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:49:10 +0000

ouch — budget cuts are definitely tough, i’m sure they will find creative ways to overcome it though!

By: tack

tack — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:04:47 +0000

Why nobody mentioned good looking hilux at last picture?
Why?

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:53:00 +0000

Wonder what the Stig costs.
Perhaps he’ll need to cut back on his audio-books.
Maybe they could host the show in a warehouse……….

By: SamR

SamR — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:22:54 +0000

They get paid well but that show is dangerous.

Did you see Clarkson driving the truck into the brick wall? He could have been killed. Hammond almost was as well recently.

By: Geni

Geni — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:00:22 +0000

^^ Doubt it. The instant something like that occurred and was found out, Top Gear would lose all credibility. No amount of extra funding would be worth the loss in ratings. Second, Top Gear is Clarksons show, he presented the business case to the BBC to restart the show in 2001. Thats why he gets paid more, he writes a lot of the material and has much higher involvement in the creation of each episode. Second, Hammond and May’s pay is per episode, and is in pounds. Thirdly, its show biz, you get paid based on how indispensible you are. Clearly, Top Gear without Clarkson isn’t Top Gear, and its a fair point, May is probably the most dispensible of the three. He’s still getting paid nearly 800,000 pounds a year ($AU2 million) and that doesn’t include any other tv activities he does (which is quite a few).

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:57:25 +0000

Hammond is worth more than James because more people will tune in to see him, plus he had a television career before Top Gear. James doesn’t have as much of an input on the show either, he rarely has his own segments and lets face it, when they have group challenges, he’s usually in the background or saying “oh, cock”.

By: lee

lee — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:15:53 +0000

wonder if there’s sponsorship from the cars they endorse….