The ABC has made the reluctant decision to shelve the second incarnation of the music quiz show Spicks and Specks after conceding that audiences simply aren’t connecting with the show the way they’d hoped. The new version of the much beloved panel show, which debuted in February with new host Josh Earl and new team captains Ella Hooper and Adam Richard, has struggled in the ratings as audiences became apparently unwilling to accept the new team, following the departure of the original cast of Adam Hills, Myf Warhurst, and Alan Brough in 2011.
And yet 1.6 million people are willing to watch dickheads in Bali find creative ways of killing themselves.
The ABC originally ordered 20 episodes of the Specks 2.0, which was extended to 26. The network will air three more episodes before hitting pause after episode 20, leaving 6 episodes – that have already been filmed – to go to air at an undisclosed later date.
The show has been managing consistent viewer numbers that average around 450,000 nationwide, with last week’s episode peaking at 490,000. These aren’t awful ratings by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re simply not growing. Even more damning, perhaps, is the fact that nightly repeats of the original series on ABC2 are still pulling in 265,000 viewers, making it the highest rated non-children’s program on the multichannels.
And yet, 650,000 of you are watching When Love Comes To Town.
The move is disappointing, as other ABC shows on the same night are faring far worse. The apparently untouchable Chris Lilley‘s new show Jonah From Tonga has been attracting a steadily decreasing number of viewers throughout the run of the series, with current viewer ratings being dangerously close to flatlining. But the ABC persists with the show, even at the expense of critical hits – the show forced the final episode of the absolutely excellent The Agony of Modern Manners to be aired later in the night.
And yet, real life people are spending actual money to produce a show called Bogan Hunters.
There’s three new episodes of Spicks and Specks left before it goes away – potentially forever. Please watch and enjoy them while they last, Australia.
