When Clarkson, Hammond, and May jumped ship from the BBC (or walked the plank, depending on your interpretation) into the warm, murky waters of the Amazon, they had big plans for their new project. Something called The Grand Tour necessitates some, you know, actual grand touring, so they used a massive collapsible tent to film the studio bits in nine different countries during the first season. It quickly became the show's most iconic feature. And now, it's no more.
All right, technically the tent does still exist, but its traveling days are officially over. Amazon has announced the tent will stay put at a fixed location in the Cotswolds in Britain for the duration of season two, according to Express. That doesn't mean the show has turned its back on its international ambitions—new segments have been filmed in places like Croatia, Switzerland, Dubai, Spain, and Mozambique—but it's still a marked shift from the formula used in the first season.
"We'll keep the studio in one place, and given how accident prone they are at the minute, that can only be a good thing," executive producer Andy Wilman said in a statement. "Given their sore joints, struggling lungs and combined age of 158, the studio tent has been given a new home in a charming location in the Cotswolds."
From Richard Hammond's terrifying Rimac crash to Jeremy Clarkson's recent bout with pneumonia, it's been something of a rough off-season for the old crew. The excesses of the first episodes were bound to be dialed back at some point, and Wilman also pointed out that retiring the traveling tent will allow everyone to spend more time and energy on the kind of road trip films and challenges that made old Top Gear so beloved.
There is one other silver lining (aside from hopefully no more Celebrity Brain Crash): it's now a little easier to attend the tapings for season two. You can apply for tickets here, but only until October 3.