Jeremy Clarkson has admitted he is uncertain about the future of Clarkson's Farm just days after wrapping filming for the sixth series. On Tuesday (September 29), the 66-year-old broadcaster appeared at the Royal Television Society London Convention, where he was quizzed about a seventh series.
He confessed the future of the show is uncertain, telling the crowd of journalists: "We wrapped season six of Clarkson's Farm final yesterday, and season seven is king of, 'What are we going to do?'"
New project teased
Despite the show's future being called into question, the motoring journalist reassured fans that he is already working on a new project but stopped short of offering further details about its nature. He teased: "We're currently thinking about what we do after Clarkson's Farm, and it's going to have to be something bigger to stand out and protect us from this onslaught from [social media content] underneath. It has to be unbelievably ambitious."
The presenter shared his fears for the future of television, painting a bleak picture of the unemployment landscape facing TV presenters once production concludes. With 35 to 40 crew members from Clarkson's Farm now out of work, he revealed that these staff are now "sitting at home thinking, 'How are we going to pay our mortgage?'"
Industry-wide concerns
He went on: "I know a huge amount of producers that I've worked with over the years, really, really clever people, decent, sensible, hard-working people, who cannot find work in the industry." His comments about the future of TV work centres on a "fewer, bigger, better" approach to commissioning in a bid to combat dwindling numbers caused by social media.
Mr Clarkson went on to suggest that every major British broadcaster could unite under a single streaming platform. He pondered: "I think they are [going to merge], I actually believe more than that. I actually think that television in this country can at least survive and should do this, the whole lot of us; BBC, ITV, Sky, Channel Four, Channel Five."
Gardening TV under threat
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host used gardening TV as an example of an area of broadcasting that is particularly under threat, particularly following Monty Don's exit from the BBC's Gardeners' World. He went on: "Anyone can do a gardening thing on social media or cookery. It's very difficult to make a television show work unless you're cooking on the Moon or you know, doing something incredible."
Mr Clarkson's worrying update comes just days after he published a scathing attack on the prime minister, Andy Burnham. He branded the Labour leader as "the most small-minded and timid leader we've ever had" in his latest Sunday Times column.
