Graham Norton has lost his new show The Neighbourhood after it failed to meet producers' expectations due to poor ratings. ITV bosses have now made a significant statement, saying they will not make a show like it again and will instead focus on programmes such as Love Island and Big Brother.
The broadcaster's Entertainment Commissioning Editor Joe Mace said that ITV has 'learned lessons' from the TV flop, which aired earlier this year. Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Joe said the show was an experiment that did not work as planned, and they intend to leave it in the past.
According to The Sun, Joe said: 'We talk about taking risks and then we like to put it into action. As a format, people loved the idea of creating a neighbourhood where you were judging people and how they would behave as families... It had a lot of really good ITV ingredients.'
'One of the lessons we've learned from that is that people come to ITV for fast-turnaround, live reality TV first and foremost. They've been served the best in those shows in Love Island and Big Brother and we should probably stick to that.' He added that while there is plenty of great post-produced reality TV out there, that is perhaps not the lane ITV should be in. The programme was originally set to launch Graham on the channel and rival the BBC's popular show The Traitors.