I'd imagine that any contract for the show will have disclaimers for unproduced episodes - acts of god, "fracas" caused by presenters. That sort of thing. Standard contract clauses...
BBC Worldwide - a commercial BBC subsidiary - sell the show internationally, but it's produced by the BBC itself in-house. There is no way someone who's suspended is going to be allowed to carry on working purely for commercial reasons.I can only think that the reason they've not continued with two presenters, is because there are too many pre-filmed pieces and car reviews lined up for the remaining episodes, that feature Clarkson. Assuming the show continues - and I'm 99% certain it will, with different presenters if necessary - then they'll simply make-good in the future. The interesting part of this in the UK, where we seem to get minute by minute coverage of the whole thing, is the problem that the Top Gear brand is enormously valuable, but at the same time, they simply can't let "talent" get away with things that any other staff member would face disciplinary measures over. That's all the more the case because the BBC is Licence Fee funded. Every TV viewer in the UK has to pay £145.50 ($215) a year regardless. That said, if what has been alleged happened to anyone at a commercial company then they could quite easily go to court over it. It's worth pointing out that this all extends beyond television. The presenters almost certainly earn much more from lucrative arena shows which are put on around the world. The BBC owns the Top Gear licence for these (it was partly owned by Clarkson previously, but they bought it from him in 2012), and again, it's hard to see how Clarkson could still do those. Clarkson will of course be fine. ITV would snap him up in an instant. And while I don't see them doing a copycat programme, they might fashion some kind of variant. ITV would kill for a brand like Top Gear though - they've been busily acquiring many TV production companies around the world recently and plan to make more money *making* TV than selling advertising in the UK. They bought the company that makes The Voice just last week. Popular factual entertainment would fit in very nicely. Adam On 16 Mar 2015 01:50, "Kevin M." <[email protected]> wrote: > The last few days I'm wondering if the other stations/networks around the > globe that pay for the rights to air Top Gear have grounds to sue the BBC > for ending the series prematurely? I suspect due to ownership reasons, the > show's producers can't simply finish the episodes and air them everywhere > but the BBC. On Radio 4's NewsQuiz, nobody on the panel seemed a fan of > Clarkson's brand of humor, but they all seemed to agree that canceling the > series -- as opposed to letting it run out with James and Richard -- was a > bit like a school teacher making all the kids lose recess because one kid > misbehaved. Tiff Needell and Fifth Gear have been having a laugh at > Clarkson's expense, even running an ad campaign with the tagline, "No > producers were punched in the making of this show." > > On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 5:37 PM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> It appears that BBCA will reair the first part of the Road Trip special. >> It's labelled as new on the BBCA website, but I thought that this special >> aired last year. >> >> David >> >> -- >> -- >> TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "TV or Not TV" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... 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