Top Gear: BBC offers James May and Richard Hammond £1m to stay
The BBC is understood to have offered former Top Gear co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond a multi-million pound deal to stay on the show.
Read more: BBC loses 5m viewers from Top Gear cancellation
The pair have both been offered deals in the region of £1m a year according to The Times, contracts that would make them two of the most well-paid people on the BBC's books.
Top Gear lost its iconic presenting team of when May and Hammond followed Jeremy Clarkson out of the door when the abrasive was fired for assaulting a producer.
Together the trio helped Top Gear become the most popular show on BBC 2, with the channel immediately losing 5m viewers the first weekend the show was pulled off the air following the fracas.
Representatives of the two presenters and the BBC declined to comment.
The futures of Clarkson and co have been subject to much speculation since their BBC departure, with both ITV and Netflix reported as possible future destinations for the trio.
In April BBC 2 controller Kim Shillinglaw said Top Gear would return to the channel in a new format, but left open the possibility for the presenters to return to the organisation, saying: "Jeremy will be back on the BBC…Conversations are ongoing with James and Richard."