If you thought the final goodbye in “One for the Road” was the end of the road, think again. The Grand Tour is officially coming back to Prime Video later this year, and it is doing the one thing fans always said it could never do: return without Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.
Prime Video has confirmed a six-episode season for 2026, designed to reset the series after the original trio’s departure. The new hosts are Thomas Holland and James Engelsman from YouTube’s Throttle House, joined by trainspotting social media personality Francis Bourgeois.
The Grand Tour 2026 reboot: new hosts and six episodes confirmed
Let’s get the facts straight, because this is not a one-off special or a cheeky spin-off. This is The Grand Tour, back as a six-episode run, travelling across big, cinematic locations including the Angolan desert, Malaysia, and California.
The casting is the headline. Throttle House is not some random pick, it is one of the biggest car channels on the planet, sitting at almost 3.4 million subscribers. Holland started the channel in 2015, and Engelsman joined a few years later. Then there’s Francis Bourgeois (real name Luke Nicolson), a qualified mechanical engineer who briefly worked at Rolls-Royce before stepping into full-time social media fame.
Engelsman clearly knows the weight of what they are walking into, but he is leaning into it. “I’ve worked with Thomas for almost a decade making car films,” said Engelsman. “Who knew that all this time, the one ingredient that was missing was a Francis Bourgeois? Let the car adventures commence.”
Holland’s line is even more on-the-nose for anyone bracing for the internet discourse. “When I first heard they were rebooting The Grand Tour and replacing Clarkson, Hammond, and May, I said, ‘Only a moron would take that job,’” added Holland.
Can Throttle House and Francis Bourgeois match the Clarkson Hammond May magic?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth for diehards: nobody is replacing Clarkson, Hammond, and May. Not because the new line-up lacks talent, but because 22 years of chemistry is not a casting decision, it is lightning in a bottle.
That said, Prime Video is not trying to recreate 2000s Top Gear beat-for-beat, and it would be mad to try. Throttle House brings genuine car knowledge and a modern, enthusiast-first vibe. They can film, they can review, and crucially, they can be funny without forcing it. Francis Bourgeois is the wild card, and potentially the smartest choice. His whole persona is joyful, niche, and unapologetically geeky, which could give the show a new flavour that is less pub-banter chaos and more wide-eyed adventure.
The risk is tone. The Grand Tour worked because it could swing from stupid challenges to genuinely stunning travel filmmaking, with Clarkson’s voice anchoring the whole thing. Without that centre of gravity, the reboot needs a new identity fast, otherwise it becomes a high-budget YouTube road trip with a famous logo.
What this means for Prime Video and The Grand Tour fans in 2026
The original run went on the hoist in September 2024 after “One for the Road,” filmed across Zimbabwe and Botswana, and it was framed as the end of an era. Clarkson has now even popped up again in a short skit on The Grand Tour’s social channels to confirm the new hosts, which feels like a symbolic passing of the spanners.
My take: this reboot will live or die on whether it stops apologising for existing. If the new trio try to cosplay the old trio, it will be unbearable. If they treat it like a fresh start, with big trips, real cars, and a different kind of chemistry, it might just earn the right to keep the name.
Either way, one thing is guaranteed. We are all going to watch the first episode, not to see if it is the same, but to find out what The Grand Tour looks like when it finally admits it cannot be.
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