BBC cancels Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind and Live at the Apollo

BBC cancels Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind and Live at the ApolloImage caption, Bradley Walsh on the set of Blankety BlankBySteven McIntoshEntertainment reporterPublishedJust nowBlankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind and Live at the Apollo have been cancelled by the BBC, as the corporation looks to make further financial savings. The main Mastermind series will continue, with Clive Myrie remaining as host, but the celebrity spin-off will end after the next series, which has already been filmed.In a statement, the BBC said it was "incredibly proud of all three of these much-loved shows" and thanked the programmes' production teams."Unfortunately," it continued, "we have to make some really tough choices in light of our funding challenges, and these savings have been identified from the Entertainment genre."Viewing figures for all three shows have fallen over recent years. Celebrity Mastermind dropped from an average of 4m viewers in 2017, to 1.7m for its most recent series.Blankety Blank, meanwhile, has gone down from 5.5m viewers in 2021 to 2.3m for the most recent series.And Live at the Apollo has gone down from around 1.3m viewers in 2018 to around 660,000 on its most recent series. These figures include catch-up platforms such as iPlayer.More cuts to comeThe BBC said: "These difficult decisions form part of the BBC's previously announced first phase of its proposals to make £500m of savings over the next three years."BBC Content has a target of delivering a minimum of £100m of recurring annual savings which will result in a reduction of around 100-150 hours of originated TV programmes across genres by the end of 2027/28."The corporation added that further savings across its content division will be announced in the coming months. Image caption, Comics Andrew Mensah, Josh Widdicombe and Harriet Kemsley seen on Live at the Apollo earlier this yearLive at the Apollo, which has been running since 2004, also h...