With the first episode of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May’s post-Top Gear show The Grand Tour breaking records on Amazon, excitement for the second episode is palpable.
‘Operation Desert Stumble’ takes the trio’s new portable studio to Johannesburg, South Africa, another exotic location following the desert of California.
From the trailer, the upcoming episode looks to be filled with everything Clarkson and Co’s fans love: screeching tires, expensive cars, and explosions (plus, James May shooting a machine gun from a passenger seat in Jordan).
In a recent interview, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos revealed how much Amazon paid for the right to stream The Grand Tour: originally, it was believed to have cost the company upwards of $160 million yet Sarandos claims it cost “a quarter of a billion dollars”.
“We knew what it was worth,” he continued. “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.”
So far, The Grand Tour has received rave reviews across the board, including The Independent’s which labeled the show “Top Gear with a bigger budget.” Episode two will be available on Amazon Prime this Friday.