BBC1 splits up from Prized Apart

UK pubcaster BBC1 has axed its most recent flagship Saturday night entertainment show after just one season due to poor viewing figures.

Prized Apart averaged less than three million viewers

Prized Apart, from UK prodco Electric Ray, saw one half of a couple answering questions in a London studio while the other faced challenges in the Moroccan desert. The couples worked together to be in with a chance of winning a cash prize of up to £100,000 (US$155,000).

The show aired at 19.00 on Saturdays, starting in June, but failed to pull in viewers and claimed an average audience of less than three million across its six episodes.

Electric Ray was launched in 2014 by Sony Pictures Television and former BBC entertainment commissioner Karl Warner.

The series attracted controversy because a show with the same name had been considered while Warner was a commissioning editor at the BBC, prompting the pubcaster to change the rules around its commissioning process.