Channel 4 axe popular show fronted by one of the broadcaster's biggest names as cost-cutting efforts continue

Channel 4 has decided not to renew popular daytime series Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas.

The show, fronted by Kirstie Allsopp is being rested for a year as part of cost-cutting efforts in reaction to the broadcaster’s ad revenue plummeting.

Deadline report that Channel 4’s content chief Ian Katz personally phoned Kirstie to deliver the news last Thursday.

An ‘upset’ Kirstie confirmed the axing but said she was excited to continue work on the primetime version of the show which will be back in December. 

Axed: Channel 4 has decided not to renew popular daytime series Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas

‘Rested’: The show, fronted by Kirstie Allsopp is being rested for a year as part of cost-cutting efforts in reaction to the broadcaster’s ad revenue plummeting

‘I know it’s not personal,’ she told 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.’

‘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 said.

Kirstie also revealed that she and Phil Spencer, her regular presenting partner on long-running Channel 4 shows Location, Location, Location and Love It Or List It, signed a new two-year deal in March.

The axe of Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas is just the latest in a string of cuts for Channel 4.

Last month it was revealed that the channel’s hugely popular reality TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins was coming to an end after eight series.

The broadcaster is said to be ‘shifting its focus’ to the show’s spin-off Celebrity SAS, meaning the original programme will be scrapped.

Rise and Fall, fronted by Radio 1 DJ Greg James, is also unlikely to make a return for a second series. 

New deal: Kirstie revealed that she and Phil Spencer, her regular presenting partner on long-running Channel 4 show Location, Location, Location signed a new two-year deal in March

According to Deadline, Channel 4 are thinking of ditching the programme due to the cost of producing it.

The outlet reports that ‘mistakes were made during filming’ as there was a quick turn around from shooting to going out on TV screens.

Channel 4’s boss Ian Kaz was said to be ’50/50 about whether Rise and Fall would be renewed soon after it transmitted, but there is a growing sense that it will be difficult for the show to return given it was expensive to produce and fell well short of The Traitors’.