The Nightly Show didn’t work and won’t be returning at 10pm admits ITV boss
The entertainment experiment is a doubt for a return and if it does it will be in a later slot
The Nightly Show didn’t really work, ITV's director of programmes has admitted, and faces the axe.
Kevin Lygo admitted at the Edinburgh Television Festival that the eight-week experimental topical entertainment format did not succeed and he is still unsure whether the show - which was hosted by a roster of presenters including David Walliams, John Bishop, Davina McCall, Dermot O’Leary and Gordon Ramsay - will return.
“Did it work? Not really,” he said of the series which controversially shunted the News at Ten to 10:30pm.
“There’s a million reasons [why]," added Lygo. "With hindsight, a different host every week made it very difficult for the production team.
"The theory was that if you build the show there would be these fun people you would slot in each week. What happened of course, on week four you’d have a new host who would come on and say ‘I’m not doing that’ and you’d have to reinvent the show.
“Ten O’clock maybe was too early, particularly for ITV. Maybe it was a bit of a shock [for viewers]."
He said that he might still bring the show back in a later time slot but sounded doubtful.
“Certainly not at 10 o’clock. The challenge is can it work for us later, that sort of thing. I don’t know.”
Lygo also confirmed that Harry Hill's Fun Capsule would be getting a second series but was going to be moved to a Saturday teatime slot.
He said that the first series did not succeed in the ratings but that he expected it to build an audience for series two because "Harry Hill is at the top of his game".
