( CNN ) The BBC has suspended Jeremy Clarkson , the host of car show `` Top Gear , '' following `` a fracas with a BBC producer , '' the broadcaster said in a statement . `` Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation , '' they said . `` No one else has been suspended . Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday . '' Fans of the presenter expressed dismay at the decision . At the time of writing , more than 147,000 people had signed a petition seeking his reinstatement . Using the hashtag # BringBackClarkson , some Twitter users lamented that the show would not be the same without him . Clarkson himself also took to Twitter , posting an apology ( of sorts ) to Labour leader Ed Miliband -- for knocking him down the news agenda . `` Save Clarkson ? '' his co-host James May tweeted . `` Save empty cardboard boxes and off-cuts of string . They 're far more useful . '' This is not the first time that Clarkson has been at the center of controversy . In May this year , the television presenter asked forgiveness after using a racist term during a taping of the show . Clarkson had mumbled the n-word while reciting a children 's nursery rhyme , but that version of the take was never aired . Last year , the BBC show hit the headlines when Argentina complained about a `` Top Gear '' special filmed in the country in which the number plate H982 FKL was used -- interpreted by some as a reference to the 1982 Falklands War . Forced to stop filming and leave the country , Clarkson said on the BBC Newsbeat website that the use of the plate was purely coincidental . In a previous article on their website , the BBC said `` Jeremy Clarkson is not a man given to considered opinion . '' In their statement , the corporation declined to comment any further . Jeremy Clarkson : Hated by liberals , loved by the elite .
he was involved in an encounter with a BBC producer . ' Top ##down ' was due to broadcast this Sunday , but pulled from schedule .