A friend of mine is a neighbor to Ant's SoCal home. I heard the new shows that Ant will do are something like the ones he previously did solo - building a car for himself. The upcoming ones will be another "custom" build like the prior one was. I'm not surprised he is staying in the US, now that he is married to a very successful US citizen and has a baby with her (my friend's wife is friends with Ant's wife - quite the story behind their relationship).
I got the feeling that Mark Priestly is something of a "milder" personality in the way that Edd China was. Meaning not as assertive as Ant. I had the feeling Brewer did not like being upstaged by Ant's strong manner, nor did Ant like playing second role. Kind of surprised they lasted as long as they did together.
I'd love to see the program with people like Edd and Mark - dropping Mike altogether. In other words stick more to just the technical stuff and get more detailed on it.
But I know that's not what sells TV.