EXCLUSIVE: Kirstie Allsopp’s widespread daytime sequence Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas is being rested for a yr as a part of Channel 4’s efforts to chop prices amid a chastening advert market stoop.
Deadline understands that Channel 4’s content material chief Ian Katz personally phoned Allsopp to ship the information final Thursday. He made an express reference to the UK broadcaster’s monetary difficulties after its advert income plummeted by as a lot as 20%.
We revealed on Monday how Channel 4 is canceling reveals on the eleventh hour, asking suppliers to finance productions at quick discover, tasking them with rethinking budgets mid-shoot, and pushing initiatives into 2024 as a result of it could’t afford to select up the invoice.
First screened in 2014, Handmade Christmas was not formally greenlit for an additional season by Channel 4, however early preparations have been underway, together with tentative visitor bookings. The present is produced by Glasgow-based firm Elevate The Roof Productions.
Allsopp, one in all Channel 4’s highest-profile and most enduring presenters, confirmed that the daytime sequence is not going to be made this yr, however a primetime model of the present will air.
“I know it’s not personal,” she advised Deadline. “We all take a hit on different things at different points in time. Hopefully, the ad market will improve and we’ll be back again.”
Allsopp estimated that as much as 30 manufacturing crew would lose work because of the choice, including to current woes for freelancers who’re within the throes of what broadcasting union Bectu has described as an “emergency” for unscripted tv.
“I am very upset for anybody — not just my colleagues, not just the lovely people that I work with — but anybody in the industry who is struggling for work. I know there are quite a few,” she stated.
Khalid Hayat, Channel 4’s Director of Technique, advised a committee of lawmakers on Tuesday that cost-cutting had precipitated “pain” for some producers, however the broadcaster was assured that monetary pressures would solely be a short-term phenomenon.
“Our priority throughout this period is to preserve shows as much as we can, to minimize any disruption or cancellations to commissioning and any decisions that we make are about ensuring the sustainability and delivering the sustainability of Channel 4’s remit delivery,” he stated.
Allsopp revealed that she and Phil Spencer, her common presenting accomplice, signed a brand new two-year take care of Channel 4 in March. The presenters have been a fixture on Channel 4 for 23 years, internet hosting property sequence Location, Location, Location and Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or Listing It.
A Channel 4 spokeswoman stated: “The primetime show, Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas will air later this year as planned.”
