Channel 4 ‘axes’ The Andrew Neil Show amid content material cuts
V
eteran broadcaster Andrew Neil has confirmed his Sunday evening politics programme won’t return to Channel 4 this yr with a call but to be made about its recommission in 2024 amid content material cuts.
The Andrew Neil Show launched as a reside 10-part sequence in May 2022 and noticed the journalist interview “decision-takers and news-makers from across the political spectrum” and look at the “biggest events of the moment”.
The third sequence of the half-hour weekly programme led to April and won’t return this yr whereas plans for 2024 are nonetheless unsure, Neil confirmed on Twitter.
Sharing a Guardian article reporting the “axing”, 74-year-old Neil tweeted: “Fair, accurate and authoritative report in the Guardian: Andrew Neil show is latest victim of Channel 4 cuts.”
A spokesperson for Channel 4 stated: “The Andrew Neil Show delivered matchless insight and analysis during a period of intense political turmoil.
“It is not true that it has been axed, a decision is yet to be made on a recommission in 2024”
It comes because the broadcaster reshuffles its schedule after a “downturn in the ad-market” which it depends on to generate cash to fee reveals.
When The Andrew Neil Show was commissioned final yr, the veteran broadcaster described himself as “honoured and delighted”.
He stated: “Sunday night is a pivotal point in the political week — we can sweep up what’s happened in the previous week, mop up what’s been in the Sunday papers and talk shows and throw forward to the upcoming week.
“We’ll aim to do all of that and more.”
Neil’s profession as a political presenter and interviewer has spanned three a long time and he’s the chairman and editor-in-chief of Press Holdings Media Group, publishers of The Spectator and different associated titles.
He stepped down because the chairman and host of a prime-time present on GB News final yr, earlier than becoming a member of Channel 4.
Neil is a former Sunday Times editor and was one of many BBC’s prime political broadcasters for a few years, presenting This Week, Daily Politics and BBC One’s Sunday Politics.
He has interviewed world leaders together with Kofi Annan, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Sir Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson.
Neil introduced the Channel 4 programme Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road? in January.
Channel 4 has been contacted for remark.