Eggheads axed as BBC thinks audience is too old, says Vine
THE BBC has ended production of Eggheads because its audience is considered too old, according to Jeremy Vine.
As the corporation chases younger viewers, it has no plans to make any more editions of the quiz show. A new series has begun on BBC Two, but it was filmed a year ago.
In an interview with The Guardian, Vine said of the show he has hosted since 2008: “My understanding is that it’s sleeping.”
“I did more than 1,000 episodes. It’s one of the most successful TV shows in the history of British television, but I think it’s fallen victim to the BBC’S understandable desire to pull in 16 to 24-year-olds.”
A BBC spokesman said Eggheads
“resting” for the foreseeable future. Eggheads regulars include Chris Hughes, 72, Judith Keppel, 77, and Kevin Ashman, 60. At the last count, the average age of a BBC Two viewer was 62, but the broadcaster has been told by Ofcom to pursue a younger audience, and plans to double the budget of youth channel BBC Three by taking £40million from BBC Two, BBC Four and BBC One over the next two years.
Despite the new focus on BBC Three, Piers Wenger, the corporation’s head of drama, has said that individual channels are losing their importance, and viewers no longer care where their favourite programmes are broadcast.
He cited the example of Normal People, a BBC Three series that was shown on BBC One and has become one of iplayer’s biggest hits.
“Will Normal People be remembered as a BBC One show, a BBC Three show or an iplayer show?” he said. “People just want to be able to watch great shows at the time and speed they want to watch them. That’s why iplayer will inevitably become the biggest pillar of the BBC story,” adding that was his “personal view, not wider BBC policy”.
Wenger was speaking to Radio Times to promote I May Destroy You, which begins on BBC One next week, and stars Michaela Coel as a woman experiencing flashbacks to a sexual assault.