Exclusive: Popular Channel 4 panel show 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown appears to be the latest to have been hit by the network’s slowdown.
Deadline is told that Channel 4 has been sitting on the current series since it was delivered last year and there are no plans to record a new series this year.
“We have already shot episodes which are ready to air,” said a spokeswoman. “To keep the show current we will shoot further episodes nearer transmission.”
Channel 4 wasn’t able to say when the new episodes will be shot.
Produced by Would I Like To You? maker Zeppotron, Cats Does Countdown is a Jimmy Carr-hosted mash-up of comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats and daytime quiz Countdown. It has been a ratings success, is one of Channel 4’s longest running unscripted shows and has aired more than 150 episodes over the past 12 years.
The series features...
Deadline is told that Channel 4 has been sitting on the current series since it was delivered last year and there are no plans to record a new series this year.
“We have already shot episodes which are ready to air,” said a spokeswoman. “To keep the show current we will shoot further episodes nearer transmission.”
Channel 4 wasn’t able to say when the new episodes will be shot.
Produced by Would I Like To You? maker Zeppotron, Cats Does Countdown is a Jimmy Carr-hosted mash-up of comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats and daytime quiz Countdown. It has been a ratings success, is one of Channel 4’s longest running unscripted shows and has aired more than 150 episodes over the past 12 years.
The series features...
- 5/8/2024
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Channel 4 has axed its splashy version of U.S. survival format Alone after one season.
The series from Squid Game: The Challenge producer The Garden, which has aired in the U.S. for a decade, has been one of a handful under consideration for a second series recommission over the past few months, we understand. Producers had been preparing for a second season.
In Alone, 11 contestants are dropped into the remote Canadian Wilderness, where each must survive entirely on their own. Eventual winner Tom Williams took home the £100,000 in September 2023 after battling the elements, wild animals and an extreme test of mental strength. The show had been unveiled by Channel 4 in August 2022 alongside The Traitors-esque format Rise and Fall.
Alone began quietly over the summer with an audience of around 700,000 per episode but this figure nearly doubled when consolidated viewing was taken into account, and the show...
The series from Squid Game: The Challenge producer The Garden, which has aired in the U.S. for a decade, has been one of a handful under consideration for a second series recommission over the past few months, we understand. Producers had been preparing for a second season.
In Alone, 11 contestants are dropped into the remote Canadian Wilderness, where each must survive entirely on their own. Eventual winner Tom Williams took home the £100,000 in September 2023 after battling the elements, wild animals and an extreme test of mental strength. The show had been unveiled by Channel 4 in August 2022 alongside The Traitors-esque format Rise and Fall.
Alone began quietly over the summer with an audience of around 700,000 per episode but this figure nearly doubled when consolidated viewing was taken into account, and the show...
- 4/17/2024
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Jobs are under threat at ITV Studios-backed Scared of the Dark and Come Dine With Me producer MultiStory Media as the indie kickstarts a formal consultation process.
Deadline understands a handful of the producer’s circa-80 staff could be made redundant as part of the process that started last week. If there are layoffs, the number leaving will be in the single figures, we understand.
A MultiStory spokesman said: “We can confirm that we have entered into formal consultation with colleagues and are supporting them during this time. As you can imagine, it would be inappropriate to share any further details at this stage, and as such, we will not be making any further comment.”
The news comes several months after Channel 4 abruptly canceled MultiStory’s high-profile reboot of former Sky reality series Four Weddings.
The ITV Studios-backed company rebranded from Shiver around four years ago to...
Deadline understands a handful of the producer’s circa-80 staff could be made redundant as part of the process that started last week. If there are layoffs, the number leaving will be in the single figures, we understand.
A MultiStory spokesman said: “We can confirm that we have entered into formal consultation with colleagues and are supporting them during this time. As you can imagine, it would be inappropriate to share any further details at this stage, and as such, we will not be making any further comment.”
The news comes several months after Channel 4 abruptly canceled MultiStory’s high-profile reboot of former Sky reality series Four Weddings.
The ITV Studios-backed company rebranded from Shiver around four years ago to...
- 11/7/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Channel 4 entertainment boss Phil Harris is exiting the broadcaster after four years in post.
Harris is leaving at the end of this year to launch his own production company. His place will be taken temporarily by I Literally Just Told You and Don’t Look Down commissioning editor Steve Handley, who will report to progams boss Ian Katz and has been with Channel 4 for five years.
Harris joined Channel 4 in 2019 from Britain’s Got Talent indie Thames, where he was Creative Director. He has commissioned the likes of Late Night Lycett, Paddy McGuinness format Tempting Fortune and Prince Andrew: The Musical during his tenure.
Katz said he has “presided over a purple patch for C4 entertainment, delivering a host of hugely original new shows, helping to launch the careers of some of the most exciting new talents in the industry, and racking up so many awards we’ve...
Harris is leaving at the end of this year to launch his own production company. His place will be taken temporarily by I Literally Just Told You and Don’t Look Down commissioning editor Steve Handley, who will report to progams boss Ian Katz and has been with Channel 4 for five years.
Harris joined Channel 4 in 2019 from Britain’s Got Talent indie Thames, where he was Creative Director. He has commissioned the likes of Late Night Lycett, Paddy McGuinness format Tempting Fortune and Prince Andrew: The Musical during his tenure.
Katz said he has “presided over a purple patch for C4 entertainment, delivering a host of hugely original new shows, helping to launch the careers of some of the most exciting new talents in the industry, and racking up so many awards we’ve...
- 10/10/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: ITV Studios has struck its 17th I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! territory sale and is heading out on a renewed U.S. pitching drive.
The Greek version of the 20-year-old format will launch on free-to-air network Skai TV in the autumn and be filmed in the Dominican Republic. Produced by Acun Medya, the series will follow the same format as the original, with a group of celebrities taken to a jungle where they compete in challenges and are slowly voted off by the public. Versions in French Canada, Hungary and Romania have been ordered of late, along with an All Stars spin-off in the UK.
“The format’s ability to engage viewers across multiple platforms and consistently deliver high ratings shows its enduring appeal and entertainment value,” said Ruth Berry, ITV Studios’ MD of Global Partnerships.
“The big territory”
Speaking to Deadline, the outfit’s...
The Greek version of the 20-year-old format will launch on free-to-air network Skai TV in the autumn and be filmed in the Dominican Republic. Produced by Acun Medya, the series will follow the same format as the original, with a group of celebrities taken to a jungle where they compete in challenges and are slowly voted off by the public. Versions in French Canada, Hungary and Romania have been ordered of late, along with an All Stars spin-off in the UK.
“The format’s ability to engage viewers across multiple platforms and consistently deliver high ratings shows its enduring appeal and entertainment value,” said Ruth Berry, ITV Studios’ MD of Global Partnerships.
“The big territory”
Speaking to Deadline, the outfit’s...
- 6/1/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Channel 4’s Ian Katz has become the first broadcasting boss to acknowledge the UK commissioning slowdown, which led Bectu to yesterday declare an “emergency” in the freelance TV community.
Katz told the Wales Screen Summit Channel 4 is “watching to see how the market plays out,” while he is speaking to indies about the “freelancer situation.”
The cost-of-living crisis has been causing a well-publicized slowdown in the advertising market and Katz noted this could decline by 10% to 20% over the coming months, with ITV last week issuing a trading update showing a 10% dip in Q1.
Channel 4 is helped by the fact that “we came out of Covid and commissioned quite fast, quite intentionally because the cupboards were very empty,” according to Katz, who said “we are well stocked [with shows] into this year and the first half of next year.”
Compounding the current freelancer situation, last year saw a post-Covid commissioning boom, with...
Katz told the Wales Screen Summit Channel 4 is “watching to see how the market plays out,” while he is speaking to indies about the “freelancer situation.”
The cost-of-living crisis has been causing a well-publicized slowdown in the advertising market and Katz noted this could decline by 10% to 20% over the coming months, with ITV last week issuing a trading update showing a 10% dip in Q1.
Channel 4 is helped by the fact that “we came out of Covid and commissioned quite fast, quite intentionally because the cupboards were very empty,” according to Katz, who said “we are well stocked [with shows] into this year and the first half of next year.”
Compounding the current freelancer situation, last year saw a post-Covid commissioning boom, with...
- 5/17/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Peacock is developing a pilot for a raunchy social experiment format titled Sex in the Dark.
Clarkson’s Farm producer Expectation is behind the pilot, which joins a number of Peacock shows on its unscripted development slate. The pilot was filmed late last year, we understand.
The show’s logline describes Sex in the Dark as a “radical new social experiment” and centers on one single person who is blindfolded or left completely in darkness as they embark on “intimacy tests” to judge their connection, chemistry and attraction with a number of different suitors.
After each round, one suitor will be eliminated. The show culminates in a final night in complete darkness, as the singleton bed-hops with the remaining suitors to see if smell, touch, physical connection and energy is all you need to fall in love.
Amy Dallmeyer, Ben Wicks and Lucy Palmer are EPs on the series from Expectation,...
Clarkson’s Farm producer Expectation is behind the pilot, which joins a number of Peacock shows on its unscripted development slate. The pilot was filmed late last year, we understand.
The show’s logline describes Sex in the Dark as a “radical new social experiment” and centers on one single person who is blindfolded or left completely in darkness as they embark on “intimacy tests” to judge their connection, chemistry and attraction with a number of different suitors.
After each round, one suitor will be eliminated. The show culminates in a final night in complete darkness, as the singleton bed-hops with the remaining suitors to see if smell, touch, physical connection and energy is all you need to fall in love.
Amy Dallmeyer, Ben Wicks and Lucy Palmer are EPs on the series from Expectation,...
- 5/2/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
In ITV’s Malpractice, (the title is a bit of a giveaway), a dedicated but stressed-out emergency doctor, Lucy Edwards (Niamh Algar), finds herself accused of negligence following the death of a young drug overdose victim, Edith Owusu. Edith’s treatment is temporarily sidelined when a blood-spattered kid and an armed man bust into A&e, and Lucy has to make split-second decisions about priorities. There’s not enough beds, and, as the duty nurse asks her, who’s she going to give the space to – the child bleeding to death, or the “junkie”, now stabilised? In this fast-cut busy opening sequence, Lucy delegates the routine task of looking after the overdosed girl to a fairly incompetent but devious junior (Priyanka Patel as Dr Ramya Morgan). We see that it is she, not Lucy, who gets mixed up about Edith’s dosages, with lethal results; but Dr Morgan is a more...
- 4/23/2023
- by Sean O'Grady
- The Independent - TV
Derren Brown’s five-star spectacle Showman will be screened on television for the first time on Sunday night (23 April).
When the illusionist’s show hit the London stage last year, it was described by critics as “mind-blowing” and “sobering”.
The content of Showman remains top secret, but to mark the broadcast, we listened back on Brown’s fascinating 2019 interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Here are five intriguing things we learnt…
The liquid latex anecdote
Brown told a bizarre story about using liquid latex years ago when he was living in a house share. “I put some of this latex on my eye just a little bit one morning because it looked like special effects makeup, it looked like, you know, I’d hurt my eye,” he said.
“I went down to breakfast and I loved the attention and when friends asked, ‘What did you do to your eye?...
When the illusionist’s show hit the London stage last year, it was described by critics as “mind-blowing” and “sobering”.
The content of Showman remains top secret, but to mark the broadcast, we listened back on Brown’s fascinating 2019 interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Here are five intriguing things we learnt…
The liquid latex anecdote
Brown told a bizarre story about using liquid latex years ago when he was living in a house share. “I put some of this latex on my eye just a little bit one morning because it looked like special effects makeup, it looked like, you know, I’d hurt my eye,” he said.
“I went down to breakfast and I loved the attention and when friends asked, ‘What did you do to your eye?...
- 4/23/2023
- by Ellie Harrison
- The Independent - TV
In Plato’s allegory of the cave, a group of people find themselves bound to the walls of a subterranean hangout. Ahead of them they see flickering shadows, caused by the distant fires of the sunlit world, but all else, for them, is darkness. Are these shadows reality, or just a pale facsimile? That was the question of two millennia ago: now it’s Channel 4’s turn to use darkness as an allegory for reality (or reality TV), with Scared in the Dark, a new five-part celebrity reality show told, not by Plato, but by Danny Dyer.
Scared of the Dark follows a group of eight celebrities – boxers Chris Eubank and Nicola Adams, singer Max George, Love Islander Chloe Burrows, ubiquitous TV person Scarlett Moffatt, actor Donna Preston, stand-up Chris McCausland and, well, Gazza – as they spend a week or so in the pitch black. “Located deep within a 146,000 sq ft hangar,...
Scared of the Dark follows a group of eight celebrities – boxers Chris Eubank and Nicola Adams, singer Max George, Love Islander Chloe Burrows, ubiquitous TV person Scarlett Moffatt, actor Donna Preston, stand-up Chris McCausland and, well, Gazza – as they spend a week or so in the pitch black. “Located deep within a 146,000 sq ft hangar,...
- 4/21/2023
- by Nick Hilton
- The Independent - TV
Derren Brown’s five-star spectacle Showman will be screened on television for the first time on Sunday night (23 April).
When the illusionist’s show hit the London stage last year, it was described by critics as “mind-blowing” and “sobering”.
The content of Showman remains top secret, but to mark the broadcast, we listened back on Brown’s fascinating 2019 interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Here are five intriguing things we learnt…
The liquid latex anecdote
Brown told a bizarre story about using liquid latex years ago when he was living in a house share. “I put some of this latex on my eye just a little bit one morning because it looked like special effects makeup, it looked like, you know, I’d hurt my eye,” he said.
“I went down to breakfast and I loved the attention and when friends asked, ‘What did you do to your eye?...
When the illusionist’s show hit the London stage last year, it was described by critics as “mind-blowing” and “sobering”.
The content of Showman remains top secret, but to mark the broadcast, we listened back on Brown’s fascinating 2019 interview on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Here are five intriguing things we learnt…
The liquid latex anecdote
Brown told a bizarre story about using liquid latex years ago when he was living in a house share. “I put some of this latex on my eye just a little bit one morning because it looked like special effects makeup, it looked like, you know, I’d hurt my eye,” he said.
“I went down to breakfast and I loved the attention and when friends asked, ‘What did you do to your eye?...
- 4/21/2023
- by Ellie Harrison
- The Independent - TV
Former England footballer Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne has become the first ever winner of experimental Channel 4 reality show Scared of the Dark.
Gascoigne came out on top over seven other celebrities, after spending 180 hours in complete darkness – living, eating, sleeping and completing challenges.
The series, billed as a “world first”, came to a close on Thursday (20 April) with the winner announced by host Danny Dyer.
Following his win, Gascoigne said he had been “nervous” to take part but said the experience had made him “a better person”.
“People always question my mental strength but my success on this series proves that I am strong,” he said.
“I was nervous going in there but having gotten this far on the series made me the happiest man around.
“I’m so happy. It’s unbelievable. I’ve got my smile back. I’m a better person.”
Read The Independent’s review of the series here.
Gascoigne came out on top over seven other celebrities, after spending 180 hours in complete darkness – living, eating, sleeping and completing challenges.
The series, billed as a “world first”, came to a close on Thursday (20 April) with the winner announced by host Danny Dyer.
Following his win, Gascoigne said he had been “nervous” to take part but said the experience had made him “a better person”.
“People always question my mental strength but my success on this series proves that I am strong,” he said.
“I was nervous going in there but having gotten this far on the series made me the happiest man around.
“I’m so happy. It’s unbelievable. I’ve got my smile back. I’m a better person.”
Read The Independent’s review of the series here.
- 4/21/2023
- by Ellie Harrison
- The Independent - TV
Channel 4 has received nearly 1,300 Ofcom complaints over its controversial show Naked Education.
Presented by Anna Richardson and created by the team behind Naked Attraction, the educational show about body positivity aired on Channel 4 earlier this month.
In the first episode, a group of 14 to 16-year-olds were taught about body hair, with the segment concluding with four adults stripping off in front of them to show diversity in other people’s bodies.
The four adults also spoke to the teenagers about their own issues with body image and the topic of pubic hair.
The series was hotly debated on social media and daytime TV, with Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway saying: “There’s something about the physicality of a stranger being naked in front of a teenager which I just feel uncomfortable about, because of all the things that we read about.”
Ofcom has now confirmed that they have...
Presented by Anna Richardson and created by the team behind Naked Attraction, the educational show about body positivity aired on Channel 4 earlier this month.
In the first episode, a group of 14 to 16-year-olds were taught about body hair, with the segment concluding with four adults stripping off in front of them to show diversity in other people’s bodies.
The four adults also spoke to the teenagers about their own issues with body image and the topic of pubic hair.
The series was hotly debated on social media and daytime TV, with Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway saying: “There’s something about the physicality of a stranger being naked in front of a teenager which I just feel uncomfortable about, because of all the things that we read about.”
Ofcom has now confirmed that they have...
- 4/20/2023
- by Isobel Lewis
- The Independent - TV
Max George has publicly shared his grief after the death of his friend and fellow The Wanted singer Tom Parker.
Parker died in March 2022 from glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumour, two years after a terminal diagnosis.
He had been a member of the band since 2009, along with George, Jay McGuiness, Siva Kaneswaran and Nathan Sykes.
George is currently a participant in the Channel 4 celebrity experiment, Scared of the Dark, in which familiar faces spend a week in total darkness.
On Wednesday’s edition (19 April) of the nightly programme, the one-time Strictly Come Dancing contestant opened up about learning of Parker’s ill health and his prognosis.
“I was shooting a movie and it was the last day of filming and my phone rang and it was Kelsey [Parker’s wife] and I was like, oh that’s a nice surprise.”
George recalled the difficulties of grasping what Kelsey was telling him about Parker’s health,...
Parker died in March 2022 from glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumour, two years after a terminal diagnosis.
He had been a member of the band since 2009, along with George, Jay McGuiness, Siva Kaneswaran and Nathan Sykes.
George is currently a participant in the Channel 4 celebrity experiment, Scared of the Dark, in which familiar faces spend a week in total darkness.
On Wednesday’s edition (19 April) of the nightly programme, the one-time Strictly Come Dancing contestant opened up about learning of Parker’s ill health and his prognosis.
“I was shooting a movie and it was the last day of filming and my phone rang and it was Kelsey [Parker’s wife] and I was like, oh that’s a nice surprise.”
George recalled the difficulties of grasping what Kelsey was telling him about Parker’s health,...
- 4/19/2023
- by Nicole Vassell
- The Independent - TV
While scripted TV tends to get more attention than unscripted programming, the executives gathered in Cannes this week for the 60th MIPTV international television market know that formats like reality TV and game shows help pay the bills.
And with budgets for high-end TV tightening worldwide, making more money off of those formats has never been as important as it is now.
For giant ITV Studios, home to a 90,000-strong catalog of more than 250 titles, including global formats Love Island, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and The Voice, extending established brands across different platforms has become a key to future growth.
ITV Studio veteran Ruth Berry, giving MIPTV’s Media Mastermind keynote on Tuesday, talked up how the group has pushed its non-scripted shows into the multiverse, with I’m a Celebrity jungle trials in Fortnite and metaverse extensions of The Voice.
“I’m so fortunate...
And with budgets for high-end TV tightening worldwide, making more money off of those formats has never been as important as it is now.
For giant ITV Studios, home to a 90,000-strong catalog of more than 250 titles, including global formats Love Island, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and The Voice, extending established brands across different platforms has become a key to future growth.
ITV Studio veteran Ruth Berry, giving MIPTV’s Media Mastermind keynote on Tuesday, talked up how the group has pushed its non-scripted shows into the multiverse, with I’m a Celebrity jungle trials in Fortnite and metaverse extensions of The Voice.
“I’m so fortunate...
- 4/18/2023
- by Liza Foreman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Earlier this year ITV Studios, which reps shows ranging from “Love Island” to “Schitt’s Creek,” revealed it was merging its global distribution and entertainment arms. On Tuesday afternoon, Ruth Berry, the woman who was appointed to lead the now joint arms, set out the strategy behind the move during a keynote discussion at Mip TV in Cannes.
“I think we’re bringing together the formats and the finished programming businesses to create a singular multi-genre multi-brand multi-dimensional commercial business to the heart of the studio,” Berry explained. “Be that deficit financing and licencing rights to brilliant scripted slates, rolling out new formats like ‘My Mum, Your Dad’ and ‘Scared of the Dark,’ merchandising ‘Schitts Creek’ products, selling ‘Love Island’ water bottles, moving into the Metaverse, you know, all these things, having them in one place.”
Berry’s new role, she added, is to “to try and get my arms around...
“I think we’re bringing together the formats and the finished programming businesses to create a singular multi-genre multi-brand multi-dimensional commercial business to the heart of the studio,” Berry explained. “Be that deficit financing and licencing rights to brilliant scripted slates, rolling out new formats like ‘My Mum, Your Dad’ and ‘Scared of the Dark,’ merchandising ‘Schitts Creek’ products, selling ‘Love Island’ water bottles, moving into the Metaverse, you know, all these things, having them in one place.”
Berry’s new role, she added, is to “to try and get my arms around...
- 4/18/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Channel 4 has announced plans to air a documentary about the “problem” with Prince Andrew as part of their “alternative schedule” around King Charles III’s forthcoming coronation.
Airing as part of the channel’s coronation programming around the coronation, Andrew – The Problem Prince will see Emily Maitlis speak in detail about her infamous Newsnight interview with the Duke of York in 2019.
Following the 2019 interview, in which the former BBC journalist grilled Andrew about his relationship with the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the duke stepped down from public life.
The two-part series will also feature archive footage, an interview with former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister and access to palace insiders, Channel 4 has announced.
The programme is being executively produced by Maitlis along with James Goldston, Sheldon Lazarus and Nina Davies.
It will be broadcast as part of Channel 4’s “alternative schedule”, which the broadcaster said “will provide an...
Airing as part of the channel’s coronation programming around the coronation, Andrew – The Problem Prince will see Emily Maitlis speak in detail about her infamous Newsnight interview with the Duke of York in 2019.
Following the 2019 interview, in which the former BBC journalist grilled Andrew about his relationship with the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the duke stepped down from public life.
The two-part series will also feature archive footage, an interview with former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister and access to palace insiders, Channel 4 has announced.
The programme is being executively produced by Maitlis along with James Goldston, Sheldon Lazarus and Nina Davies.
It will be broadcast as part of Channel 4’s “alternative schedule”, which the broadcaster said “will provide an...
- 4/17/2023
- by Isobel Lewis
- The Independent - TV
May will be a brutal month for fans of great television. Succession hangs up its necktie on 28 May at the end of its fourth season, bringing an end to the best drama of the last decade or so. The same night, on the same channel (HBO in the US; Sky and Now in the UK), Barry will also finish up its own stellar four-season run. Bill Hader’s showbiz satire/crime drama fusion has never quite hit the zeitgeist like its HBO compatriot, but those who did tune in have been transfixed by its inventive, blackly comic sensibility and first-rate performances. Season four, thankfully, sees it go out on a high.
The series picks back up with assassin-turned-actor Barry Berkman (Hader) at a low point, locked up in prison for the murder of police officer Janice Moss. Having been turned in by his former acting coach, the conceited Gene Cousineau...
The series picks back up with assassin-turned-actor Barry Berkman (Hader) at a low point, locked up in prison for the murder of police officer Janice Moss. Having been turned in by his former acting coach, the conceited Gene Cousineau...
- 4/17/2023
- by Louis Chilton
- The Independent - TV
The BBC has reportedly issued letters gauging interest for voluntary redundancy to its top presenting stars, sending shockwaves through the corporation.
The move is thought to be part of a cost-saving mission by the corporation, which includes reducing spending in its news division.
On Saturday night (15 April), the Mail reported that the BBC’s interim managing editor of news and current affairs, Philippa Busby, has written to all its senior TV and radio presenters asking them to consider voluntary redundancy.
The publication reported that Huw Edwards, Clive Myrie and Sophie Raworth were among those to receive letters. The Independent has contacted their representatives for comment.
On Twitter, Edwards said the move was a “standard invitation to consider applying for voluntary redundancy” and “nothing more”.
Alongside a picture of him and his mother drinking champagne, he wrote: “Reality check. A standard Hr exercise by @BBCNews (one of many over the years) is just that.
The move is thought to be part of a cost-saving mission by the corporation, which includes reducing spending in its news division.
On Saturday night (15 April), the Mail reported that the BBC’s interim managing editor of news and current affairs, Philippa Busby, has written to all its senior TV and radio presenters asking them to consider voluntary redundancy.
The publication reported that Huw Edwards, Clive Myrie and Sophie Raworth were among those to receive letters. The Independent has contacted their representatives for comment.
On Twitter, Edwards said the move was a “standard invitation to consider applying for voluntary redundancy” and “nothing more”.
Alongside a picture of him and his mother drinking champagne, he wrote: “Reality check. A standard Hr exercise by @BBCNews (one of many over the years) is just that.
- 4/17/2023
- by Ellie Harrison
- The Independent - TV
The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin has hinted that the hit HBO series won’t end at season two.
During a panel about the apocalyptic drama on Sunday (16 April) at Nab in Las Vegas, Mazin said there’s “quite a bit of story to tell”.
“Our plan is to do it not just for one more season,” he said of the show starring Pedro Pascal. “We should be around for a while.”
The update comes after Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie, gave her thoughts on when season two is likely to arrive.
Speaking on The Jonathan Ross Show last month, Ramsey said, “It will be a while. I think we’ll probably shoot at the end of this year, beginning of next.”
“So it’ll probably be the end of 2024, early 2025.”
Earlier this month, the filming location for The Last of Us season two was revealed. Deadline reported that...
During a panel about the apocalyptic drama on Sunday (16 April) at Nab in Las Vegas, Mazin said there’s “quite a bit of story to tell”.
“Our plan is to do it not just for one more season,” he said of the show starring Pedro Pascal. “We should be around for a while.”
The update comes after Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie, gave her thoughts on when season two is likely to arrive.
Speaking on The Jonathan Ross Show last month, Ramsey said, “It will be a while. I think we’ll probably shoot at the end of this year, beginning of next.”
“So it’ll probably be the end of 2024, early 2025.”
Earlier this month, the filming location for The Last of Us season two was revealed. Deadline reported that...
- 4/17/2023
- by Peony Hirwani
- The Independent - TV
In Plato’s allegory of the cave, a group of people find themselves bound to the walls of a subterranean hangout. Ahead of them they see flickering shadows, caused by the distant fires of the sunlit world, but all else, for them, is darkness. Are these shadows reality, or just a pale facsimile? That was the question of two millennia ago: now it’s Channel 4’s turn to use darkness as an allegory for reality (or reality TV), with Scared in the Dark, a new five-part celebrity reality show told, not by Plato, but by Danny Dyer.
Scared of the Dark follows a group of eight celebrities – boxers Chris Eubank and Nicola Adams, singer Max George, Love Islander Chloe Burrows, ubiquitous TV person Scarlett Moffatt, actor Donna Preston, stand-up Chris McCausland and, well, Gazza – as they spend a week or so in the pitch black. “Located deep within a 146,000 sq ft hangar,...
Scared of the Dark follows a group of eight celebrities – boxers Chris Eubank and Nicola Adams, singer Max George, Love Islander Chloe Burrows, ubiquitous TV person Scarlett Moffatt, actor Donna Preston, stand-up Chris McCausland and, well, Gazza – as they spend a week or so in the pitch black. “Located deep within a 146,000 sq ft hangar,...
- 4/16/2023
- by Nick Hilton
- The Independent - TV
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