BBC cancels Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind and Live at the Apollo

Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind and Live at the Apollo have been cancelled by the BBC, as the corporation makes further financial savings.

The main Mastermind series will continue, with Clive Myrie remaining as host, but the celebrity spin-off will end after the next series, which has already been filmed.

In a statement, the BBC said it was “incredibly proud of all three of these much-loved shows” and thanked the programmes’ production teams.

“Unfortunately,” it continued, “we have to make some really tough choices in light of our funding challenges, and these savings have been identified from the Entertainment genre.”

Viewing figures for all three shows have fallen over recent years. Celebrity Mastermind has dropped from an average of 4m viewers in 2017, to 1.7m for its most recent series.

Blankety Blank, meanwhile, has gone down from 5.5m viewers in 2021 to 2.3m for the most recent series.

And Live at the Apollo has dropped from around 1.3m viewers in 2018 to around 660,000 on its most recent series. These figures include catch-up platforms such as iPlayer.

The BBC said: “These difficult decisions form part of the BBC’s previously announced first phase of its proposals to make £500m of savings over the next three years.

“BBC Content has a target of delivering a minimum of £100m of recurring annual savings which will result in a reduction of around 100-150 hours of originated TV programmes across genres by the end of 2027/28.”

The corporation added that further savings across its content division will be announced in the coming months.

Live at the Apollo, which has been running since 2004, also has one further series already filmed, but will not continue after that has been broadcast.

The show is normally anchored by a well-known comedian, who introduces two other comics to present their own stand-up routines at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.

The programme has acted as a spring board for emerging comedy talent, and helped boost the early careers Michael McIntyre, Kevin Bridges, Micky Flanagan and Sarah Millican.

Although Live at the Apollo will end, the BBC said it would “shortly be announcing digital plans focused on stand-up and emerging comedy talent”.

They said the ongoing pivot to digital would “ensure we continue to support the stand-up community in a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive media landscape”.

Bradley Walsh, who presents Blankety Blank, said earlier this week that the show was currently on ice because he was too busy to film another series.

The presenter told the Radio Times it was “one of my favourite shows” but that he “physically does not have the time” to film another series at the moment because of other commitments.

Blankety Blank launched in 1979 and initially ran for 11 years, presented by Terry Wogan and Les Dawson.

It has since been revived several times, including a popular 1990s run hosted by Paul O’Grady’s alter-ego Lily Savage.

The current incarnation, presented by Walsh, has been on air since 2020, when the success of a one-off Christmas special prompted the BBC to commission several more series.

Celebrity Mastermind launched in 2002 and has also been presented by Magnus Magnusson and John Humphrys.

It was a spin-off from the main Mastermind series that launched three decades earlier and saw members of the public answer questions on general knowledge as well as a specialist subject.

The BBC said: “We will still continue to commission ambitious Entertainment shows and invest in distinctive UK content from a wide range of independent production companies of all sizes.”

The corporation also said it would “prioritise digital innovation that can serve fans of these shows and beyond”.