Jeremy Clarkson is the face of Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm and should be treated as such, Kelvin MacKenzie has claimed.
The former editor of The Sun’s comments come after Amazon bosses claimed Prime Video’s flagship series is not all about the former Top Gear star.
The streaming service is reportedly looking into its relationship with Clarkson after he admitted to hating Meghan Markle on a “cellular level” in a column for The Sun last year.
Season two of Clarkson’s Farm was released in February 2023 and has become Amazon’s most-watched programme in the UK.
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Kelvin MacKenzie says Jeremy Clarkson is “the only good thing” about Amazon’s content.
“If you watch the whole, the whole thing is interactions with Clarkson and other people”, he said.
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“No Clarkson, no show, no Clarkson, no hit. The truth of the matter is, Amazon is going down the tube in regards to its TV.
“The only thing worth watching on Amazon right now, is Clarkson. Clarkson, in his own way, you can have any view about him, but this is a b****y funny show.”
Speaking at Edinburgh TV Festival, Fozia Khan, of Amazon’s UK Originals, said: “I mean, there’s lots of conversations going on. But I think the thing that I want to say is that the show is so much bigger than Clarkson.”
Speaking to Kelvin MacKenzie, GB News presenter Dan Wootton dubbed the comments “pathetic”, adding Clarkson “made a mistake” with his column.
Jeremy Clarkson and Kaleb Cooper star in Clarkson's Farm AMAZONMacKenzie says: “The truth of the matter is, they’ve got nothing to replace Clarkson with.
“They’ve just lost the tennis, that has gone to Sky. If they lost Clarkson, you might as well give up watching Amazon Prime.
“The woman [Khan] is talking rubbish. She is in the wrong game if she thinks there is more to this show than Clarkson.
“The reason they pay Clarkson so much money is because he attracts a massive audience because he is a fantastic performer.
“Single handedly he reworked Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
“Nobody was watching the damn thing before, it wasn’t even on air for a decade or so. ITV won’t be dumping him from that, because he is talent and talent is worth indulging.
“Fozia Khan, get real or get out!”
The show, which first aired in 2021, focuses on the host’s attempts to run a 1,000-acre holding in the Cotswolds.
Dan Grabiner, head of Amazon’s Prime Video UK, told the Edinburgh Fringe audience: “I can’t tell you what a phenomenon the show itself is and the impact it has had on the agricultural community and farming.
“We get messages from farmers around the world who just love the show and love Kaleb and Gerald and they relate to those characters, saying they have never really seen their world properly reflected on screen before, which is amazing.”