Changing Rooms set to be axed as revamp is a flop LAURENCE LLEWELYN-GOING
One of worst things I’ve seen... like watching
paint dry
EXCLUSIVE THE writing’s on the wall for TV’S Changing Rooms – with the makeover show’s reboot heading for the skip like a worn-out 1990s sofa.
Stars from the original line-up couldn’t paper over the cracks as Laurence Llewelyn-bowen and co lost a third of their viewers after three episodes.
Over one-and-half million people watched the launch show but 500,000 had switched off within a fortnight.
A television source said: “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 show originally ran from 1996 to 2004 and got 10 million viewers. After a 17-year hiatus it moved from BBC Two to Channel 4 with great fanfare this summer.
Host Carol Smillie was replaced with Anna Richardson, 50, who helms C4’s raunchy dating show Naked Attraction.
Mocked
But her stint on Changing Rooms proved anything but a turn-on.
The show was immediately mocked for its bizarre designs. The first episode saw blonde wigs hung from a wall in a house in Swansea, South Wales.
Some viewers said the show was like watching paint dry. One branded it “horrific” and another called it “one of the worst things I’ve ever seen”.
One newspaper warned the designs were so awful they could scar viewers for life. Channel 4 said: “The commission was for one series. A decision won’t be made until series one has finished.”
Other classics such as Blind Date, Supermarket Sweep and the Price is Right have also been brought back to life, with varying degrees of success.
One 90s favourite, Davina Mccall’s dating show Streetmate, lasted 15 episodes when C4 revived the format with Scarlett Moffatt as host.