Mel and Sue snub the unloved Nightly Show as viewers disappear
ITV is facing fresh embarrassment over The Nightly Show after Mel and Sue pulled out as presenters.
The broadcaster, which moved the News At Ten to 10.30pm to make way for the chat show, was pinning its hopes on them to lift ratings.
Former Bake Off hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins had already featured in a trailer for the failing show, but have quit, saying they are too busy.
A different host fronts the show each week. David Walliams launched it and was followed this week by John Bishop. Davina McCall and Gordon Ramsey are also lined up as hosts. Mel and Sue were due to present it next month. But sources close to the show claim they got ‘cold feet’ about the way it was going.
ITV hoped it would emulate US chat shows such as The Late Late Show. But its ratings have gone from bad to worse, and it has fewer viewers than the News at Ten did. Just 1.6million people tuned in on Wednesday. The last time ITV news was screened at 10pm on a Wednesday, 2.2milllion watched it. The braodcaster refused to comment on the figures, but a spokesman said: ‘Mel and Sue were never signed to present The Nightly Show. The production team undertook discussions with them about the possibility of presenting a week but due to their hectic schedule this wasn’t possible.’
The pair are thought to have taken part in rehearsals for the show during its four-week ‘dry run’, making episodes that were never broadcast. They also filmed a promotional trailer for the series, which ITV used to sell the idea to foreign broadcasters at a festival just ten days before its launched.
Miss Giedroyc, 48, and Miss Perkins, 47, said: ‘We were approached to take part in the series. However, due to our busy schedule we were unable to make the dates work.’
BoSSES at ITV provoked an outcry when they shoved News At Ten out of its traditional slot to make way for The Nightly Show, a light entertainment programme that’s been savaged by the critics. Now, however, I hear they are considering a humiliating U-turn. ‘If the ratings haven’t improved dramatically by the end of next week, the News At Ten will be restored to its proper time,’ an ITV source tells me. ‘To spare our blushes, The Nightly Show will continue, but it will be broadcast after the news finishes. There’s a recognition that we are destroying the news.’
ITV had previously spent a fortune improving News At Ten, which is presented by Prince William’s confidant Tom Bradby.
BBC star Robert Peston was poached to be political editor and Allegra Stratton was drafted in from Newsnight.
However, the revamp failed to boost the programme’s audience significantly, compared with the far more popular BBC News At Ten, presented by Huw Edwards, so ITV chose to launch The Nightly Show. The series, which is scheduled to last for eight weeks, has different presenters taking the reins for five days each.
Little Britain star David Walliams was paid £50,000 a day to present The Nightly Show with stand-up comic John Bishop following him this week.
Though his first show had viewing figures of 2.9 million, Walliams’s final programme was watched by just 1.2 million.
He said criticism was down to anger at the fact it has pushed back the news in the schedule.
An ITV spokesman is keen to play down suggestions that the programme will be switched to 10.30pm.
‘We are not moving The Nightly Show,’ he insists. ‘It’s still very early days as we try something new that extends the prime-time entertainment feel of ITV beyond 10pm.’