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The Grand Tour pumps the brakes on guest appearances and makes a few unexpected U-turns

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Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May. (Photo supplied: Amazon Prime Video)
Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May. (Photo supplied: Amazon Prime Video)

Cape Town – The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video has changed its format for the 13-episode third season.

New episodes will roll out weekly from Friday 18 January that will align more with global viewers' preferences.

This season will be the last to have a studio audience and a tent, and the guests are also gone.

Amazon has renewed The Grand Tour in December 2018 for a series of travelogue specials.

From the 4th season it will be different in style from the first three, with the presenters who will "ditch the tent and take on big adventure road trips that fans around the world love".

The Grand Tour with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May is also doing away with guests, who in the previous two seasons were mostly British personalities.

At Amazon Prime Video's media launch for The Grand Tour on Tuesday in London, Clarkson reportedly said that international viewers don't know and don't care who the British guests appearing on the show are.

"When we began on the other show [Top Gear on the BBC], many years ago, it was a British show that was only really shown in the United Kingdom," said Jeremy Clarkson.

"And then it became international, and it still is very, very international. We're much better known in Italy and China than we are here in the UK, weirdly."

"So there is no point in having a guest where you go, 'Ladies and gentlemen, it's Howard from the Halifax advert' because in Uruguay, they haven't got a f- clue who Howard is. There seemed to be no point persevering with the guests. So that segment has gone. No guests in series three," said Clarkson.

Hammond said what viewers like "is what we like the most – which is the big adventures, us three messing about in Mongolia or Colombia or China or wherever else."

Jay Marine, vice president of Amazon Prime Video says "The Grand Tour is a worldwide hit and fan favourite. We're delighted the guys are coming back for series four. We're proud to say that Prime Video will continue to be the home for Jeremy, Richard and James".

"They've got some ambitious new ideas that Prime members are going to love. We're excited to bring more Clarkson, Hammond and May to Amazon Prime Video for years to come."

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