ITV axes three prime time shows, all after a single series

ITV has brought down the axe on three prime time shows after broadcasting them for just a single series.

Our Shirley Valentine Summer, Change Your Tune and The Big Audition have all been cancelled due to their poor performances in the ratings.

A source told The Sun: “At one point the three shows were hailed as exciting new entertainment formats for ITV.

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“However, they’ve all proven to be quite the opposite and saw ratings drop week on week. So they decided it’s not worth throwing any more money at them.

“It’s pretty embarrassing given how much they were bigged up.”

Change Your Tune (Credit: ITV)

Change Your Tune, presented by Baz Ashmawy, was billed as ‘a talent show for bad singers’, but was watched by just 300,000 people on its final episode.

Because it first aired on April 1, many viewers thought that it was an April Fool’s prank.

The Big Audition, meanwhile, went behind the scenes in the world of the casting business, but also went down badly with an audience of 700,000.

Our Shirley Valentine Summer saw celebs including Melinda Messenger, Annabel Giles and Sian Lloyd all escaping to a Greek island with the intent of ‘rediscovering themselves and even looking for love’, a la the British rom-com classic of the same name.

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It drew in 1.8 million viewers for its final instalment.

ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall confirmed: “While overall our schedule is performing strongly, not all our programmes performed as we had hoped so some, for example Change Your Tune, Our Shirley Valentine Summer and The Big Audition, will not return.”