Superior equipment will not be seen for the “foreseeable future” on TV, the BBC said.
The show has been off air since host Andrew Flintoff sustained “significant life-altering” injuries following an accident, which resulted in a £9 million ($11.2 million) payout to the cricket legend and a review of health and safety.
In the last few minutes, the BBC released a statement saying it had “decided to suspend the UK program for the foreseeable future”, citing “exceptional circumstances”.
It said it remains committed to Flintoff and its co-hosts Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris, “and we are excited about new projects being developed with each of them”, with “more to say in the near future on this”.
“We know that stopping the show will be disappointing news for fans, but it is the right thing to do,” the statement said. “All other Top Gear activities will be unaffected by this hiatus, including international formats, digital, magazines and licensing.”
Flintoff has only recently begun to be seen in public since the accident – with visible injuries to his face – which occurred last year and led to the immediate halt in filming.
The BBC apologized to Flintoff in March for his injuries, around the time a safety review was completed. The security review will not be published, but BBC Studios said “important learnings” will be taken from it and there have been a number of recommendations.
The news confirms what many already thought would be the case, but it is a huge blow to one of the BBC’s most established formats. Superior equipment had been experiencing something of a renaissance under Flintoff, Harris and McGuinness, after a few difficult seasons in which ratings fell.
