Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended as host of BBC Two’s Top Gear “following a fracas with a BBC producer”.
The broadcaster says an investigation is now underway and that this week’s episode “will not be broadcast”.
It has made no comment on the fate of the remaining two episodes of the current series.
Clarkson has previously said he was on a final warning following the leaking of video showing him reciting the racist “eeny meeny miny moe” nursery rhyme.
Top Gear is the BBC’s and UK’s highest earning TV export and is worth more than £140m per year to BBC Worldwide, the broadcaster’s commercial arm.