SPICKS and Specks has been axed by the ABC after four months on air due to disappointing ratings.
The rebooted version of the music quiz show, hosted by Josh Earl with team captains Ella Hooper and Adam Richard, hit a sour note with viewers ever since it launched on February 5.
The ABC has decided to stop the show after 20 episodes and have confirmed it won’t be returning in 2015.
Earl took a lighthearted approach to the announcement, tweeting “So guys, what’s happening? Anything I should know about?”
The result is a blow for the network which put a lot of effort into finding replacements for original host Adam Hills as well as Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough.
The original Spicks and Specks was one of the ABC’s longest-running hits, clocking up 277 episodes and often surpassing one million viewers nationally.
Last Wednesday the new Spicks and Specks averaged a dismal 331,000 viewers in the 8.30pm Wednesday timeslot.
“We believe this year’s Spicks was every bit as entertaining as its long-running predecessor, but we sadly accept that it hasn’t resonated with viewers to the degree we hoped,” ABC programmer Brendan Dahill says.
The original show ran from 2005 to 2011 and only ended because Hills, Warhurst and Brough wanted to move on to other projects.
The ABC initially commissioned 20 episodes of the new Spicks and Specks but that was later upped to 26. All the episodes have been filmed.
Spicks and Specks will screen for three more weeks, reaching its 20th episode on air. The remaining six episodes are likely to screen later in the year — perhaps in a different timeslot.
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