Jono and Ben bow out in style

On a nostalgia-filled evening, the comedy duo managed to hold it together for their last show – until a certain news anchor got up to speak. Eleanor Black was behind the scenes to see their reaction.

‘‘If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that petitions don’t work. Thank you for your 16,000 signatures but...’’ Jono Pryor

It was Mike McRoberts who finally tipped them over the edge. Until the Newshub 6pm co-anchor jumped up and gave an impromptu speech at the end of the final taping of Jono and Ben on Tuesday night, hosts Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce were darkly cheerful.

They made lots of gags about losing their primetime slot after seven years on Three and indulged in video-replay storytime. The studio audience, fed on beer and boxes of crackers, lapped it up.

And then McRoberts, who had goofily posed as a rogue Rebel Sport employee and as a ‘‘news shrub’’ for them, got emotional.

‘‘We have loved having you as colleagues, and having you on our channel and being such a big part of Three,’’ McRoberts intoned in his best Serious Newsman voice.

‘‘I have loved it every time I’ve been asked to be part of [the programme]. We love you and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing you perform and we are all feeling it today.’’

‘‘Damn, Mike McRoberts made me cry,’’ said Pryor, the more visibly upset of the two hosts.

McRoberts returned to his seat and the guys, now wet-eyed, had to redo the final sequence, in which Stan Walker, clad in the world’s sparkliest tracksuit, led a rousing rendition of Laura Daniels’ final parody song, Goodbye Forever.

This week’s last Jono and Ben came six weeks after it was announced that the comedy show had been axed, having lost half its audience in three years.

In 2015, when the show aired on Friday nights, it pulled an average of 135,000 viewers in the advertiser-friendly 25-54 demographic. This year, in the Thursday night timeslot, that average had dropped to just 68,000.

Core fans remained loyal, and a petition to ‘‘save’’ the show was posted on Change.org last month.

‘‘If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that petitions don’t work,’’ said Pryor. ‘‘Thank you for your 16,000 signatures but they mean f... all.’’ Up against that ‘‘ratings juggernaut’’ Police

Ten 7 on TVNZ2, the pair accepted that people would rather watch pixellated images of drunk drivers than tune in to see their un-pixellated faces.

The final programme was a nostalgia trip, with the hosts’ family and friends in attendance and the sharing of what felt like a few too many clips from their 200 episodes.