Laurence Llewelyngoing
Set to be Changing Rooms mp is a flop axed as reva
It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen
The writing’s on the wall for TV’s Changing Rooms – with the makeover show’s reboot heading for the skip.
Stars from the original line-up couldn’t paper over the cracks as Laurence LlewelynBowen and co lost a third of the show’s viewers after just three episodes.
The Channel 4 launch show attracted 1.6million – but half a million switched off within a fortnight.
Host Carole Smillie – who helped draw more than 10million viewers first time round – was missing from the new team. A television source sa id: “Channel 4 will be wondering what has gone wrong. A lot was put into it but it doesn’t seem to have caught on.” Another added: “It won’t be missed.” The 90s classic makeover TV show, which was originally broadcast from 1996 to 2004, moved from BBC Two to Channel 4 with great fanfare this summer after a 17-year hiatus.
Smillie was replaced with Anna Richardson, 50, who helms Channel 4’s raunchy dating show Naked Attraction. But her stint on Changing Rooms proved anything but a turn-on.
The show was immediately mocked for its bizarre designs.
The Th first episode saw blonde wigs hung hun from a wall in a house in Swansea. One branded it, “One of the worst things I’ve ever seen,” and another called the design des “horrific”.
A spokeswoman for Channel 4 said: sa “The commission was for one on series.”
Classic shows Bl ind Date, Supermarket Su Sweep and The Price Is Right have also enjoyed reboots – to varying degrees of success.
And Davina McCall’s much-loved Streetmate S lasted just 15 episodes when w Channel 4 brought back the t format with Scarlett Moffatt as host.