ITV’s bid to turn former Doctor Who star David Tennant into one of its new faces has ended in one of its biggest ratings flops in years.
Genius Game, hosted by the former Time Lord actor, 54, cost more than £2.5million to make but viewing figures this week plunged to a paltry average of 739,000.
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It was thrashed by BBC One’s Race Across the World on Wednesday and beaten on Channel 4 by The Sun’s documentary, Madeleine McCann: The Unseen Evidence.
A television insider said: “The Genius Game was a reflection of ITV’s rush to create the next big challenge show following the huge success of The Traitors.
“They chose Tennant as he’s such a household name, although his not-insubstantial fee also inflated the cost of making the programme. Yet despite pumping so much money into the show, it hasn’t delivered ratings wise.”
The prime-time reality game-show, in which contestants compete in a series of mental challenges, kicked off with an average of 1.2million watching but by episode two that had slumped to 846,000.
Wednesday night’s total was a new low and came after ITV announced it was cutting the number of episodes airing each week from two to one.
Race Across the World, which aired at the same time on BBC One, had an average rating of 3.3million.
And a documentary about a Cardiff hospital on BBC Two was not far behind Genius Game with 633,000 on average.
ITV pointed out the show was getting extra viewers on catch-up service ITVX.
A spokesman said: “Genius Game remains in the peak schedule on ITV1 at 9pm on Wednesdays and is available to view on ITVX.
“Episode one (shown on Wednesday, April 30) has so far consolidated with 1.9million viewers. Episode two is currently up to 1.3million.”