Budget cuts for Top Gear UK
The BBC has ordered Top Gear to 'tone down' the program's world renowned signature car stunts in a bid to curtail the budget.
Inflation, the current economic situation and ever increasing utility bills are said to be driving cost cutting exercises throughout the BBC with Top Gear being no exception.
Despite a 30 percent cut in the program's budget, a BBC spokesperson has said that "the next series would be as compelling and exciting as always."
Andy Wilman, the channel's executive producer, writes in his blog on the Top Gear fan site "No point in moaning about that. All shows are suffering and nobody's got a pot to p--- in any more anyway, so no reason why we shouldn't suffer as well. Our problem though, is that there is no fat to trim off the show, in that we waste almost nothing behind the scenes and the old cliche of 'every penny goes on screen' is actually true."
Top Gear attracts an audiences of up to eight-million each Sunday night in the UK alone, with each episode said to have a current budget of £200,000.
Despite the cuts Clarkson, 48, signed a lucrative contract earlier this year, reported to be worth $4.2 million a year, to present Top Gear.
Hammond, 39, and co-presenter James May, 45, also agreed to new deals worth $52,000 and $42,000 per show respectively.
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