Daily Mail: Channel 4 'spark axe fears by halting production on fan-favourite'

Story from Daily Mail:

Channel 4's bloodbath of axes appears to be rumbling on, as production has reportedly been halted on the fan-favourite show 24 Hours In A&E.

The medical series has been a staple for the channel since 2011, but staff have reportedly been told that plans to film new episodes in the autumn have been shelved.

It follows the day-to-day activity in St George's Accident and Emergency Department and most recently in Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham.

It's just the latest in a string of shows being ditched by the channel in a bid to save money, with a portion of the network's staff also laid off earlier this year.

According to an email obtained by Broadcast, The Garden, the production crew behind the show, informed staff on Wednesday that filming would not be going ahead as planned.

The email reportedly said that they 'offered the channel every measure we could to try and avert it, but I'm afraid we weren't able to avoid it'.

They added that while they were 'extremely disappointed' by the move, they added they were committed to keeping discussions open with Channel 4 to 'safeguard its future'.

It's thought that there are a large bank of episodes that have already been filmed, and are still expected to air on the coming months.

A Channel 4 spokesperson said: 'Whilst we're not filming more new episodes this autumn, we have a high number of recently filmed but not yet aired episodes, which means we'll continue to bring all the behind-the-scenes access from Queen's Medical Centre Nottingham's A&E department.

'Channel 4 always looks to provide a mix of new shows and familiar returners and 24 Hours in A&E remains an important part of that distinctive blend.

'We'll make a recommission decision at an appropriate time, once we've aired more of the episodes we have already filmed.'

Channel 4 has been plagued by a string of money problems in recent months, leading to a string of fan-favourite shows being axed.

It was reported in January that Channel 4 is undergoing a massive change after they announced they are cutting nearly 250 roles, equating to just over 15% of its full-time workforce.

This is a larger figure than the 200 predicted by industry sources as chief executive Alex Mahon is expected to announce the highest number of redundancies in the company's history.

The channel has been forced to cancel a handful of programmes, including SAS: Who Dares Wins and Steph's Packed Lunch, as part of efforts to reduce costs.

Their HQ on Horseferry Road in London will also be sold as they seek to find smaller office space in the capital.

Earlier this week it was also confirmed that Channel 4's star-studded reality show Scared Of The Dark had been cancelled after just one series.

Hosted by Danny Dyer, the experimental TV show asked a whole host of famous faces to live in complete darkness for a week as they were tasked with various challenges.

Former footballer Paul Gascoigne was crowned the series winner after living eight days in complete darkness as he beat Love Island's Chloe Burrows, ex boxer Chris Eubank and comedian Chris McCausland in the competition.

Despite raking in more than a million viewers, Channel 4 has decided against it returning for a second series, according to Deadline.

Last year staff at the channel branded the axes a 'bloodbath', after controversial cult late night show Naked Attraction and groundbreaking medical documentary Rescue: Extreme Medics, based in Scotland, were canned.

The much publicised return of reality series Four Weddings was also scrapped, though a team from an independent production company had been commissoned to make it.

Staff on fixed contracts to work on the programme were immediately laid off, leaving some worrying how they would pay their rent, in stark contrast to the channel's boss Alex Mahon, who earned £1.2 million in 2022.

Friday night favourite The Last Leg, one of the channel's most popular shows hosted by Adam Hills, Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker, also had the length of its 28th series cut to save money.

Channel 4 instructed lawyers to thrash out deals with heads of production companies to get out of contracts for shows which are worth millions of pounds, meaning it has been left with expensive legal bills and exit fees.

The crisis comes after Mahon and her colleague Ian Katz fought off a Government plan to privatise it, with one of their arguments being that it funds independent production companies nationwide.

A source told The Mail on Sunday that the channel believes it is better to cut its losses.

But staff blame Katz for wasting money on expensive but little-watched shows such as reality series Rise And Fall, which is understood to have cost the channel £14 million – money which could not be justified because of its low ratings.

One insider said: 'Everyone is calling it a Channel 4 bloodbath. At first everyone was in total shock when Four Weddings was cancelled.

'It's almost unheard of that a show that is going really well is decommissioned, but as news started to spread, other shows were falling down too.

'They were told that Ian Katz had been looking at the channel's entire output, and they were sorry but it had to happen because there was no money.

'The casting team were already in place to start on Naked Attraction and were all told they were no longer needed as they were not making another series.

'They tried to lessen the blow to the show's freelance crew by saying they hope to make another series in December, but that doesn't help them now.'

Last year, boss both Alex and Ian announced that they had deferred taking bonuses worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and scrapped a planned pay rise, amid the crisis.

However, one Channel 4 employee said: 'It's only because they have had to.'