Chav King Dropped By ITV?

The Jeremy Kyle Show has reportedly been dropped by struggling broadcaster ITV from their daytime schedules. The show, which is famous for “exploiting” dysfunctional families, will first be cut back to three airings a week before finally leaving the schedules entirely early next year.

The audience debate show launched in 2005 as a replacement for the long-running Trisha chat show, hosted by Trisha Goddard, when it switched to Channel Five. The 65 minute slot at one time was split into two with a 25-minute game show followed by, the quite highbrow, live issue-based discussion series The Time, The Place which ran for almost a decade from 1988 onwards.

The Jeremy Kyle slot first dumbed down – into the realms of “trailer trash stories” as seen in the US debate show Jerry Springer – when Vanessa Feltz moved into the slot, after a short trial run in the afternoons, Vanessa was later replaced by Trisha Goddard when the former switched to an unsuccessful version of her series on the BBC. While these shows were more froth and less issue-structured the whole level of output dropped to new lows with the arrival of the “chav’s King” Kyle.

When an incident on the show lead to a court case the judge described Kyle as a “human bear-baiter.” The programme showcases the dregs of British society, with their tedious and often ridiculous ‘problems’. While Trisha genuinely tried to fix the anti-social lot, Kyle seemed to just enjoy humiliating them.

The Daily Star report some classy programmes have been called “Brother, I’ll Prove I’m the Father Of Your Ex-Girlfriend’s Baby” and “If I Can’t Have Children, How Can It Be My Baby?”.

An ITV insider at the Granada Studios in Manchester, where the programme is based, told the newspaper “The screenings will be scaled back until next year when the show will go for good. It is unfortunate but everything has a shelf-life and this has come to an end.”

Trisha Goddard’s Channel Five series was axed last year.