Channel 4 Calls Time On Boys And Girls
Channel 4 has pledged to bring more high-brow programming to its Saturday night schedules after announcing it has axed Chris Evans’ gameshow Girls and Boys after just one series.
The show, which saw 100 men and 100 women compete for the chance to spend £100,000 in a week, marked Evans’ much anticipated return to broadcasting (see GEITF 2002: Evans Announces Return To UK Media). However, it was panned by the critics after audiences dipped below the one million mark (see below).
Announcing its departure, Mark Thompson, Channel 4’s chief executive, said the show was an “experiment to do something different on a Saturday night, which didn’t attract the kind of audience we would have liked.”
He promised a change of strategy to provide “upmarket thought-provoking alternatives” to traditional Saturday night entertainment. Speculation suggests this is likely to include more dramas and documentaries.
Thompson also confirmed that Celebrity Big Brother had been dropped after two series, saying he was sceptical about how interesting another instalment of the reality-TV spin-off would be.
Meanwhile, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, cemented their future at Channel 4 by signing a new contract that will ensure their current show runs on weekdays at 5pm at least until the end of 2004. The couple were poached from ITV1 back in 2001, where they hosted the flagship This Morning programme.
The latest Q1 Trends In Television report from the IPA shows that Channel 4 has seen its overall share of viewing fall by 0.9% points year on year to 9.2%, down from 10.1% in the same period the previous year (see Multi-Channel TV Gains Ground In Battle For Viewers).
However, the channel, which recently underwent the most radical restructure in its 20 year history (see Channel 4 Announces Most Radical Restructure In 20 Years), has pledged to invest £430 million in programming this year in a bid to increase its appeal to key audiences (see Channel 4 To Invest £430m In Programming In 2003).
Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.co.uk
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