Is Blue Peter finished?
Show once watched by millions had NO viewers for episode on digital TV
IT was essential after-school viewing for generations of children.
At its peak, eight million would tune in to Blue Peter to find out what they could create with a few toilet roll tubes and sticky-back plastic.
But the BBC children’s show appears to have suffered a dramatic slide after it was side-lined to digital channel CBBC – and a recent broadcast failed to record a single viewer.
A repeat of the show aired at 2.30pm on Tuesday June 13 got a dreaded ‘zero’ rating on the official system used to measure TV audiences. The lacklustre episode featured children’s author Anthony Horowitz launching a spy competition and a visit from children’s laureate Chris Riddell.
It also had young scooter stars showing off their tricks at the European Scooter Championship. A few youngsters may have tuned in, but there were no viewers in households with a so-called BARB box – the technology used to gather official audience statistics.
The original broadcast went out at 7.30pm on June 8 and was watched by 53,100 viewers.
Before official ratings began, it was estimated that the children’s magazine programme pulled in 7.9 million viewers per show. Ten years ago it was watched by an average of 917,000 viewers, when it was shown three times a week on BBC1. After being moved to CBBC it now pulls in just 83,000 viewers for each new show. Often it is watched by a few thousand.
The BBC insisted yesterday that Blue Peter remains a ‘national institution’ and that it is impossible to compare historic viewing figures with modern ones.
CBBC controller Cheryl Taylor said: ‘I challenge any naysayers to check out last week’s enthralling episode on iPlayer if they have any doubts at all about its value and enduring appeal to the curious and clued-up CBBC audience.’ Critics claim Blue Peter has been fatally damaged by a steady onslaught of cuts and changes.
In 2008 executives shunted it around the BBC1 schedules to make way for the Weakest Link. Then it relegated Blue Peter to CBBC and finally cut the number of weekly new episodes from three to one. Embarrassingly, the findings come just a day after the BBC vowed to spend an extra £34.4million on new children’s content over the next three years amid fears that youngsters are drawn to US-produced shows.
The once coveted Blue Peter badge has also lost its guarantee of free entry to many major attractions including Alton Towers and Thorpe Park. BARB devices are in 5,100 households which have been selected to accurately represent the wider population. It has been used as the official TV audience measure since 1981.