Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended after a "fracas" with a BBC producer, The Independent reports. This Sunday's episode of the show will not be broadcast while the BBC investigates.
The BBC released the following short statement on the sudden turn of events:
Clarkson, no stranger to controversy, was on "final warning" from the BBC after numerous accusations of offensive remarks. BBC director of television Danny Cohen ordered a full-scale internal investigation into the show last year, in response to allegations of racism and other offensive events on the show.
The Independent reports that Top Gear staff have been questioned over whether "a culture existed where people were afraid to speak out." The show's bosses feared that the BBC would cancel the series after Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May were run down by an Argentinian mob over an allegedly offensive license plate believed to be a joke about the country's defeat in the Falklands War.
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In the wake of the Argentinian controversy, Top Gear producers reportedly dialed back some of the show's more ridiculous stunts, a move which allegedly led to a drop in ratings.
The Guinness Book of World Records calls Top Gear "the world's most widely-watched factual television program." Clarkson was paid nearly $22 million for his work on the show in 2012, after BBC Worldwide took full control of the show's production.
This story originally appeared on roadandtrack.com.
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