Friday, March 13, 2015

BBC Entertainment on DStv filling the void of new Top Gear episodes with a Top Gear Patagonia special for the next two Sundays at 22:00.


With the final 3 episodes of the current 22nd season of Top Gear pulled, BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) will show a two-part Top Gear special over the next two Sundays.

Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson was suspended by the BBC on Tuesday with the British public broadcaster saying there won't be a new episode shown on Sunday.

It left BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial international arm, scrambling to find replacement content for the show which has its episodes shown very close to the broadcasting date in several countries.

It includes South Africa which started showing episodes of Top Gear from this year for the first time on the same night since the start of the latest 22nd season.

On Sunday night at 22:00 BBC Entertainment will now show Top Gear Patagonia Special Part 1, followed next Sunday by Top Gear Patagonia Special Part 2.

Danny Cohen, the BBC's director of television earlier warned Jeremy Clarkson that "no-one person is bigger than the BBC", and on Tuesday ordered his immediate suspension.

Witnesses told Sky News (DStv 402) that they saw Jeremy Clarkson threaten to have a Top Gear producer fired during an expletive-laden rant, an incident the BBC was only willing to describe in a terse statement as "a fracas".

Jeremy Clarkson was unhappy and unleashed his anger on producer Oisin Tymon (36) because there wasn't steak ready for him at a Newcastle hotel at the end of a late day of filming and just a cold meat and cheese platter since the hotel's chef had already gone home.