Graham Norton’s promising new show The Neighborhood has been axed after it was panned by viewers and received poor ratings.
ITV bosses have even said they will not make such a show again and will stick to tried and tested reality formats such as Love Island and Big Brother.
Joe Mace, editor of the broadcaster’s Entertainment Commissioning, said ITV had “learned lessons” from the TV flop, which aired earlier this year.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Joe said the show was an experiment that didn’t work the way they intended it to in the past.
According to The sunJoe said: “We talk about taking risks and then we like to put it into action. As a format, people liked the idea of creating a neighborhood where you judged people and how they would behave as families… It had a lot of really good ITV ingredients.
‘One of the lessons we learned from that is that people come to ITV for a quick turnaround, primarily for live reality TV. They’re best served on those shows in Love Island and Big Brother and we should probably stick with that.
In an embarrassing turn of events, ITV has now relegated Graham’s brand new reality show The Neighborhood to the ‘graveyard’ slot mid-series, amid poor reviews and falling ratings
‘There’s a lot of great post-produced reality TV available, and that’s perhaps not the path ITV should be in. That is our ambition now.’
An ITV spokeswoman said: ‘We are very proud of The Neighborhood – it was big, bold and ambitious – and we would like to thank everyone in front and behind the camera for all their hard work and dedication in launching the series. Unfortunately, it is not coming back for another series at this time.”
With a shiny launch and a huge marketing budget, it looked like this would be Graham’s primetime starring role.
But in an embarrassing turn of events, ITV relegated The Neighborhood to the ‘graveyard’ slot midway through the series, amid poor reviews and plummeting ratings.
The programme, which was announced with much fanfare, would launch Graham on the channel and rival the BBC’s popular The Traitors.
However, it failed to shake the curtains and ITV made the bold decision to release the rest of the episodes directly to its streaming platform ITVX, shifting its slot on ITV1 from 9pm to 10.45pm, after the evening news.
The launch attracted 1.2 million viewers. However, only 500,000 people tuned in for the third episode.
The series, which was Graham’s first reality project, sees real households compete in a series of games that ultimately culminate in the most popular family winning £250,000.
The Neighborhood debuted in the middle of the I’m A Celebrity final in an attempt to grab the attention of the jungle show’s loyal viewers.
The low ratings will be a blow to the Irish star, who has enjoyed the success of his long-running ratings winner The Graham Norton Show on the BBC (pictured)
An ITV spokesperson said: ‘The full box set of The Neighborhood is now available to stream on ITVX. In addition, the show will air in the evenings on ITV.”
Reruns of Long Lost Family and Beat The Chasers will air in place of the series on Thursdays and Fridays at 9pm respectively.
Insiders said the series has performed better on ITV’s streaming platform ITVX than on terrestrial television.
The low ratings will be a blow to the Irish star, who has enjoyed the success of his long-running ratings winner The Graham Norton Show on the BBC.
Ahead of the launch, Graham said he initially agreed to meet with producers and hear their pitch, with the intention of ultimately turning down the hosting job.
However, he admitted that he thought it was “so good that I have to say yes.”
Viewers had expressed their scathing opinions about the show on social media, calling it ‘crap TV’ and ‘the biggest nonsense’, echoing critics’ reviews.
Filmed at Darwin Lake Holiday Park in Matlock, Derbyshire, The Neighborhood was given a big budget promotional campaign ahead of its launch.
Ed Daggett, Development Executive at Lifted Entertainment, the company that produces the show, expressed his hope of beating The Traitors with the competition series.
He said: ‘The Traitors is absolutely phenomenal in terms of the way it attracts reality fans and people who don’t normally come to reality shows.
“Of course we want to get close to that kind of success.”
