Executives at Amazon Prime have spoken out about the future of the documentary Clarkson’s Farm, after the controversy its central figure faced last year over a column he penned about Meghan Markle.
In a December 2022 piece for The Sun, Jeremy Clarkson described how much he “hates” the Duchess of Sussex on a “cellular level”.
Making reference to a scene from Game Of Thrones, the divisive presenter also claimed that he “dreamed” of the day she’d be “made to parade naked through the streets” while crowds “throw lumps of excrement at her”.
Clarkson’s article sparked an immediate backlash online and became the most complained-about in press regulator Ipso’s history, with the organisation later launching an investigation.
Since then, there’ve been conversations about the future of Clarkson’s projects with both ITV and Amazon Prime, with one more season of Clarkson’s Farm still on his contract.
During a discussion at the Edinburgh TV Festival, the streaming service’s head of UK unscripted content said she was “shocked and disappointed” by Clarkson’s comments, but that a decision was yet to be reached about his future with the company.
“There are lots of discussions going on but the thing that’s important to say is there is so much more going on to the show than Clarkson,” Fozia Khan said (via Deadline).
Head of originals Dan Grabiner reaffirmed that “no decisions have been made” on the “very complex topic”, and that production on the upcoming third season was going ahead as planned.
“I can’t tell you what a phenomenon this show is and the impact it’s had on the agricultural community,” he added.
“We get messages from farmers around the world who just love the show, saying they’ve never really seen their world reflected properly on screen before. It’s a hell of a lot bigger than Jeremy Clarkson.”
Moderator Scott Bryan apparently then responded: “The show is called Clarkson’s Farm.”
Almost a month after the publication of his column, Clarkson apologised publicly to both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and claimed he’d also emailed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex over Christmas to say sorry to them privately.
However, a subsequent statement issued by the couple’s spokesperson alleged that Clarkson had only addressed his statement to Prince Harry, and not to Meghan.
Meanwhile, Clarkson has filmed another series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, but ITV has similarly not announced a decision about whether the former Top Gear host will continue to host the show in the future.