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Amazon Just Picked Up the Exiled 'Top Gear' Host for a New Web Show

Streaming in the fast lane.
Photo courtesy Amazon Prime Video

Amazon is betting on "Top Gear" to bring more customers to its Prime subscription service.

The company said today that it had signed former "Top Gear" presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May to host a new show about cars that will exclusively be available on Amazon's streaming video platform that's included with an Amazon Prime subscription. While Amazon says the deal is "global" in nature, it has so far only announced plans for it to be available in the UK sometime in 2016.

"[Amazon] now saying I can't be their chief drone pilot," Clarkson tweeted. "Apparently they want us to make a car show."

The BBC, which airs "Top Gear," fired Clarkson in March after he reportedly punched one of the show's producers. (Clarkson has a long history of saying and doing stupid shit.) Hammond and May, his two co-hosts, left the show soon thereafter. The trio were reportedly shopping around the idea of a "Top Gear"-like show to major streaming services like Netflix, but it was Amazon that won their signatures.

While no terms of the deal were disclosed, the Financial Times reported that it's worth $250 million over three years.

Amazon has never revealed the exact number of Prime subscribers it has, but current best estimates peg the number around 40 million. In addition to free two-day shipping on some items, a Prime subscription also includes access to a Spotify-like music library, online photo storage, and access to phony holidays.