Great British Bake Off duo Mel and Sue’s ITV chatshow axed

A chat show featuring Mel and Sue has been cut by ITV after failing to attract high enough viewer numbers, despite the pair’s success on the Great British Bake Off.

The daytime chat show featured a mix of celebrity guests and cooking – a format similar to the duo’s late Nineties Channel 4 series, Light Lunch, which launched their television careers as a double act.

By contrast, 10 million viewers watched the sixth series premiere of The Great British Bake Off last Wednesday, where Mel and Sue exchanged witty, innuendo-laden banter with the contestants and judges.

Average audience figures for the ITV 4pm slot were around 750,000 and lost out heavily to the BBC’s 4pm programmes, Antiques Road Trip and Escape To The Country, both of which pull in audiences of two million.

ITV has axed the show but is understood to be keen to look at other potential TV projects with the pair.

This is not the first show to get the cancelled for the pair, their comedy panel series Casting Couch was dropped after just six episodes.

As rumours circulated, die-hard fans of the motoring show took to Twitter to threaten to kill the veteran presenter and comic if she were to take the job.

The Great British Bake Off continues on BBC One tomorrow night at 8pm.