Here’s Why The Top Gear Trio Aren’t Making A New Show On Netflix

When the announcement came that former Top Gear hosts, Clarkson, Hammond and May would be making a new show for Amazon’s on-demand platform, the internet was a little surprised. “Why not Netflix?” asked many commenters. After much head-scratching, Netflix’s chief product officer has confirmed why the streaming giant passed on new Top Gear.

Chatting to Digital Spy, Netflix’s Neil Hunt (who we’ve spoken to before at Gizmodo) said that the trio were simply too expensive.

You see, when Netflix wants to commission a new show, company boffins take a look at streaming data from users in excruciating detail. They pour over metadata, interactions and engagement figures to scientifically decide what people will want to watch. After analysing streaming data for previous seasons of Top Gear on Netflix (back when the show was at the BBC), Hunt and his team decided that it was simply too pricey to take up.

Hunt said in his chat with Digital Spy:

“Clearly it wasn’t worth the money to make the deal… I think they sold themselves for way more money [than they’re worth].”

Hunt later clarified his comments and said it wasn’t his place to say whether or not Amazon paid too much for it, all he knows is that it was too rich for Netflix, adding “there might be other people ranting, but we’re still in a good place”.


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