Virgin Media’s flagship show The Big Deal could be axed after just one series.
The Big Deal, hosted by Vogue Williams, saw Boy George, comedian Deirdre O’Kane, Aston Merrygold and singers Lyra and Jedward on the judging panel, which was backed by US giant Fox Entertainment.
The six-part series was billed to be the next Saturday night talent extravaganza – replacing hit franchises like The X Factor and Ireland’s Got Talent.
But an insider told The Star the show was a ratings flop and said they would be surprised if it returned in the autumn.
A source said: “Neither it or Simon Cowell’s Walk The Line were hits. It didn’t work either. Singing talent shows have reached the end and the central premise on both of them which is ‘talent show meets Deal or No Deal’ just doesn’t work. It’s just not exciting enough.”
The first episode on September 4 brought in just 177,900 live TV viewers and the figures have decreased each week since.
Total viewership across all platforms including the Virgin Media player and 'on demand' viewers for the first show reached 244,700.
Show two raked in just under 135,000 viewers with 134,900 tuning in on the second Saturday night while a total of 205,000 watched it across all platforms.
Another Saturday night episode dipped even further to 95,000 viewers. The shiny floor talent show saw people from all across the country showcase their variety of talents in the hope of winning the top prize of €50,000.
Aerial pole dancer Lisette Krol was announced the winner of the show last year.
Each performer had the choice to walk away with €1,000 or stay in competition with the chance to win the top prize.
A source said: “Anyone who would consider taking the money, it felt like a flawed premise. In particular on the Irish one, the money was too low.
“No kid is going to give up a second chance at singing a song in the 3Arena in front of Boy George with all these production values for a €1,000 or whatever they were being offered.
“People don’t believe in the prize of these shows anymore. They don’t believe you have careers at the end of them.”
But a Virgin Media source said talks were ongoing and no decision has been made.
Last week, Virgin Media boss Bill Malone rubbished reports The Big Deal cost the Ballymount-based broadcaster “a fortune”.
He told us: “What I would say is that there was some reporting saying, ‘God that must’ve cost Virgin Media a fortune’. Look, this was a pilot series that Fox in the US has funded.
"We are great at international co-productions and forging alliances with international partners so look, this is one of those… Fox has a €200million non-scripted fund for developing new content so that’s where that is coming from.
"We didn’t spend a fortune on The Big Deal.
“Clearly that’s one that has challenges by the way because you’re in the 3Arena without a big audience and virtually you had no audience, so that in itself creates challenges.
“But it is a new format and a new idea and absolutely a lot of key learnings. It was really high quality, really good.”
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