Former Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May will be returning to screens via Amazon.com, Inc. with the eCommerce giant signing all three for a new motoring show.

The new, as yet unnamed motoring show, will be made available to subscribers of Amazon’s Prime streaming service, although it isn’t clear from initial reports whether the show will be syndicated to television in those countries that don’t have access to Prime.

Top Gear prior to the departure of its three hosts was being syndicated to 214 territories globally with an estimated global audience of 315 million per episode. The show was so successful that it is the Guinness Book of Records holder for most watched factual program in the world.

The threesome coming to a new show followed an incident where host Jeremy Clarkson didn’t have his contract renewed after he was alleged to have assaulted a crew member during an argument over obtaining hot food at a hotel after a day of filming, and followed a number of previous incidents where the often politically incorrect Clarkson had been warned by employers, Britain’s BBC, to behave or else.

“Customers told us they wanted to see the team back on screen, and we are excited to make that happen,” Amazon Prime Video EU vice president Jay Marine said in a statement. “We can’t wait to see what Jeremy, Richard, James and the team will create in what is sure to be one of the most globally anticipated shows of 2016.”

In a separate interview at The Guardian, Clarkson noted that “I feel like I’ve climbed out of a biplane and into a spaceship,” before May added “We have become part of the new age of smart TV. Ironic, isn’t it?”

Welcome back boys

While widely derided by the chattering classes of the left in Britain and countries like Australia, the trio of Clarkson, May and Hammond delivered enjoyable television; even if you weren’t a car fan, it was their interactions with each other and antics, combined with often spectacular scenery and filming (at times Top Gear actually felt like a travel show), that delivered their amazing success.

The fact that they’ve signed up with Amazon, and not a traditional television company (Britain’s ITV was said to be chasing them as well) really is a sign of the times.

For Amazon, the deal is a huge coup that will not only drive customers to sign up to Prime in the territories it operates, but will also potentially deliver Amazon revenue through syndication, merchandising rights, publication rights (magazines and video sales) and even a cut from the live shows the trio do globally every year, previously under the Top Gear Live banner.

Aside from saying the new show would debut in 2016, no firm date was confirmed as to when fans can watch the three together again.

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