BBC had reportedly offered a huge sum of £4.6 million to Top Gear hosts Richard Hammond and James May, that is after the two's statement of not returning without their co-host Jeremy Clarkson.
All of their contracts ran out earlier this year and BBC refused to renew Clarkson's after his attack on producer Oisin Tymon.
A source then told Independent that the "masterplan is to reconfigure the show along the lines of the post-Angus Deayton Have I Got News for You?, with a different guest hosting each episode."
It said that Hammond and May didn't resign to protest for Clarkson's dismissal, and have been offered the attractive sum of money to keep the Top Gear flame alive.
Hammond and James will be offered higher than their £500,000 earnings per series from the last season of the motoring show. This time, with an amount amassing to a sum net of £760,000 to £1.5 million per year, they could be BBC's highest paid actors. With 2 or 3 seasons slated for their pay, the total amount would be £4.6 for the both of them.
However, it would seem very likely that the two will bite the offer, says the Ladbrokes to Mirror.
Mirror said that BBC is offering odds of 6/4 for May and Hammond to stay at Top Gear, but it's odds-on, 1/2, that they don't.
Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes stated, "It's hard to see Hammond and May shunning Clarkson in favour of the big bucks. As far as the odds are concerned the Beeb's HR department should carry on with their recruitment process."
Executive Producer Danny Cohen said there wasn't much room for slicing of budgets, and if BBC takes on more financial obligations there will be very less money to spend on content.
"If we took on one of those things, we'd just make less programmes. And that's something I think none of us want to do," he said in a Media Summit Q&A last week.
Meanwhile, several host have also been tipped to co-host the duo, such as Philip Glenister, Jodie Kidd and Guy Martin.
What's more, many stars are showing interests with the deal, willing to take over to be the host of Top Gear, David Hasselhoff is one of them.
However, a spokesperson for the BBC told Mirror, "We do not comment on speculation."
It isn't confirmed yet if the two took the offer, but if they would, then fans of Top Gear might be celebrating another 2 or 3 more seasons.
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