Presenter Graham Norton spoke out about his new series being cancelled following a disappointing response from viewers
Graham Norton shared his thoughts on the series being cancelled
Graham Norton has opened up about ITV’s decision to pull his new series The Neighbourhood. The 63-year-old previously revealed that he had high hopes for the show, which saw real-life households compete to be crowned the most popular and win a £250,000 prize to share.
Last month, ITV confirmed that the show would not return after its viewing figures failed to meet expectations. Reflecting on the decision, the presenter told The Times: “When The Neighbourhood bombed, I felt bad.
“You feel terrible about the production team, who worked on that thing for two years, and then the audience goes, no thank you.”
Before the show launched, Graham had been confident the programme could cut through, believing it offered something genuinely different from anything else on television.
“It’s not ‘something meets something else’, it’s not, ‘it’s like this, but that’. I really thought, ‘I hadn’t seen this show before’,” he previously said.
ITV’s head of entertainment and reality commissioning, Katie Rawcliffe, also addressed the cancellation, stressing that every new entertainment commission is a gamble.
She said the concept had been exciting on paper and that the team had been hugely enthusiastic about it, but ultimately it failed to connect with a big enough audience.
While The Neighbourhood may not have proved a success, Graham’s chat show is set to return for its 34th run later this month. Speaking on the Wanging On with Graham Norton and Maria McErlane earlier this year, Graham shared the changes he had made to ensure he doesn’t get bored.
“I used to do a thing where we’d end in February and then we’d have a few weeks off, and then we’d come back for eight weeks in April, May,” he explained.
“And about five or six years ago I got rid of that bit. And now it’s lovely, so we’re on for about half the year, off for about half a year. And it means by the end of February, I’m still really enjoying it, I’m not bored with it and then I kind of miss it because I’ll be looking forward to coming back at the end of September.”
The BBC has teased a major guest line-up for the returning series, including Tom Cruise, who will discuss his dramatic transformation for the apocalyptic satire Digger, and Florence Pugh, who stars in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Steinbeck’s East of Eden.
Graham’s return comes after Claudia Winkleman temporarily filled his Friday-night slot with her own programme. However, after just one series, she confirmed that she would not be returning. In a statement, she said she was grateful to the BBC for the opportunity but felt “too nervous to enjoy it”.
