James May has told The Guardian his plans for the future:
Top Gear presenter James May has ruled out returning to the BBC show without Jeremy Clarkson, saying it would be “lame” to do it with a “surrogate Jeremy”.
He said:
Me and Hammond with a surrogate Jeremy is a non-starter, it just wouldn’t work. That would be lame, or ‘awks’ as young people say.
It has to be the three of us. You can’t just put a surrogate Jeremy in and expect it to carry on. It would be forced. I don’t believe they would be stupid enough to try that. It doesn’t mean I won’t go back, we may all go back in the future. It might just be we have a break from it. I don’t know.
I haven’t yet seen any news about Richard Hammond, but the smart money says that Top Gear will have an entirely new lineup next season.
That may not be all bad though. As part of the aforementioned interview with BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw, she left hope for a new kind of Top Gear:
Speaking at a BBC2 preview event last night, Shillinglaw did confirm that Top Gear would return in a new form next year and that she would look at female presenters to front the series.
I can immediately think of two women that would be great on Top Gear; in fact, Vicki Butler-Henderson was a host before the current reboot started. Things are already looking up for whenever Top Gear comes back.