Ever since it was reported that former BBC Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May had become free agents, it was rife with speculation as to who might sign them for a new show. For the longest time ever it was rumored that Netflix could be the one, but ultimately it was Amazon who won them over.
Now last we heard, the series which is called “The Grand Tour” cost Amazon a whopping £160 million to make, which roughly averages out to about £4.44 million spent per episode in the entire first season. However as it turns out it costs much more than that, at least according to Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos who spoke to The Telegraph (via The Independent).
If Sarandos is right, apparently the show actually ended up costing Amazon £250 million. According to Sarandos, “That’s an under-reported number. It was about a quarter of a billion dollars.” That’s a lot of money to spend on a show for a single season, although given the high quality production, we guess it was money well-spent.
He also confirms that Netflix did try to sign them on. “We knew what it was worth. We made a play for that show, definitely, but we’ve had every season of Top Gear on Netflix in most territories in the world, so we had a better sense than most of what the audience was for Top Gear on our platform.” That being said, The Grand Tour is off to a great start with rave reviews everywhere. It is exclusive to Prime members, but it is also expected to be made available globally this December.
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