Can Mel and Sue save ITV’s ‘dire’ Nightly Show from the Great British Take Off?
DIRE ratings and a mauling by critics have forced ITV executives to consider axeing their flagship new chat show after just one week – unless the last-ditch recruitment of former Bake Off hosts Mel and Sue can change its fortunes.
Launched by comedian David Walliams, the US-style The Nightly Show promised ‘a high tempo of topical monologue and celebrity guests’.
But more than half its viewers abandoned the show within days, despite it being handed the coveted 10pm slot, bumping the rebranded flagship news bulletin back to 10.30pm in the process.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that a series of tense meetings were held last week at ITV and Second Act Productions, the company responsible for the show. Unkindly dubbed ‘The Sh***ly No’ by frustrated ITV executives, The Nightly Show has lost half of its 2.2million viewers since its debut last Monday night. ITV is now poised to move it away from the 10pm slot or axe it altogether unless the ratings improve.
Faced with that threat, producers are now in ‘deep discussions’ with former Bake Off duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins in an attempt to get them on the programme later this month.
The Nightly Show is recorded ‘as live’ at 6pm in a Central London studio, with a different celebrity hosting the programme every week. Comedian John Bishop is due to take the hot seat from tomorrow and an ITV source said last night that ‘the producers are talking to Mel and Sue about taking part in the show, and they are desperately hoping they will pull it off as the feeling is that they can turn this around.
‘They are two of the most popular people on television so they could do this. Everyone has their fingers crossed.’
The Mail on Sunday has learned that the problems began with the very first show, when Hollywood A-lister Russell Crowe pulled out and Doc Martin actor Martin Clunes was promoted to the star-guest slot. A source close to the show said: ‘It was a massive disappointment.
‘Who starts a series like this with Martin Clunes? He is hardly A list.’