[Locke]

Realistically speaking, Clarkson will only be out of work for as long as he wants to be.

The real question is May and Hammond because the ball is really in their court now because their contracts are up for renegotiation.

The BBC has this hilarious and naively corporate way of thinking along the lines of: 'we own the format and we own Top Gear and thats all that matters and Top Gear will go on and we'll just shuffle whatever pawns we want out there and it'll be good enough.'

And thats just not true, they seem adamant to continue Top Gear without Clarkson which is a challenging proposition on its own but now with May and Hammond out of contract those two are really wielding the hammer.

They might be able to keep a vastly less profitable Top Gear running without Clarkson, but not without Clarkson and one or both of Hammond and May.

So those two have a couple of options:

1. Tell the BBC where they can shove it and follow Clarkson wherever hes going.
2. Extort the hell out of the BBC during contract negotiations and get paid royally.

And if I'm Clarkson and I start my own show on another network the first person I hire is Oison Tymon.