Top Gear Is Officially Coming Back — But the New Hosts Haven't Been Revealed

Top Gear is coming back. The BBC confirmed as much this week, closing off years of uncertainty about whether one of its biggest motoring shows would ever return after being pulled off air. What the BBC has not done is say who will be presenting it, when it will air, or what shape the new series will actually take.

BBC confirms Top Gear’s return

The confirmation came from Ed Havard, the BBC’s Director of Entertainment, speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival on August 27. “There has been a lot of speculation about this and we can confirm that Top Gear is coming back,” he said, addressing head-on the reports and rumors that had built up around the show’s future. Havard added that the BBC would “have more information on Top Gear shortly,” but stopped there. No premiere window, no episode count, no format details.

That’s a notable shift in tone from the broadcaster. As recently as May, BBC Studios had told outlets there was “no update at this time” on the show’s status, so a director-level confirmation on stage at one of the industry’s biggest UK events counts as real news, even without the specifics that usually come attached to it.

Jimmy Carr is not confirmed as host

Reporting ahead of the announcement had linked comedian Jimmy Carr to the presenting job, and journalists at Edinburgh pushed Havard on it directly. He didn’t deny the interest, but he didn’t confirm it either. “Jimmy would be a great host, but I won’t be discussing that today,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to talk about talent today.” That’s a compliment, not a casting announcement, and it’s worth being precise about the difference. Rugby player and Celebrity Traitors breakout Joe Marler has also been floated in some reports, but like Carr, he remains speculation rather than anything the BBC has put its name to.

Why Top Gear disappeared

The show has been off the air since a serious accident during filming in December 2022, when Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff was injured after a car flipped at Dunsfold Aerodrome, the site of the show’s test track. Production on the series in progress at the time was halted, and in November 2023 the BBC said Top Gear would be “rested for the foreseeable future,” a phrase that stopped short of cancellation but offered no timeline either. Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris had presented together since 2019, and the BBC has not said whether any of them will be part of whatever comes next.

What we still don’t know

Which brings things back to how little has actually changed on paper. The presenters aren’t known. The premiere date isn’t known. There’s no confirmed format, no episode count, and no word on whether the show returns with three hosts in the traditional Clarkson-Hammond-May and Flintoff-McGuinness-Harris mold or tries something different. What the BBC has settled, at least, is the one question that had been open since 2023: Top Gear is not finished. Everything else about it is still to be decided.