ITV show Genius Game has found itself hit by a huge schedule shake-up after bombing in the ratings.
The programme, fronted by David Tennant, launched to much fanfare and hype but has become one of ITV’s lowest-performing shows in recent years.
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Originally scheduled to air every Wednesday and Thursday in the primetime 9pm slot, ITV execs have now stripped the Thursday episode in order to air it just once a week.
It means the programme will now continue on just Wednesdays over the next six weeks.
Last week, a mere 800,000 people tuned into the programme – one of ITV’s lowest 9pm figures.
Another of ITV’s latest commissions, The Fortune Hotel, managed to bring in just shy of 2.5million viewers for one episode last year – a stark difference to the seemingly doomed fortune of Genius Game.
Over on the BBC, Race Across The World, which airs in the same timeslot as Genius Game, thrashed the programme when it came to viewers – achieving a new series peak of 5.9million viewers.
Fan complaints were rife from the start with many arguing the show’s format was too complicated.
One viewer said “bye bye” just 10 minutes into the show.
As another person said: “I MUST stop giving up on things too quickly but honestly, ten minutes in and I’m getting annoyed by #GeniusGame.”
Before a third then penned: “Bit boring, very confusing, turned it off.”
The new series is adapted from a South Korean format as it brings together a few of the country’s most clever and sharp minds.
In the show, contestants participate in a selection of never-before-seen games.
The games are “all designed to not only test their intellectual acumen but encourage them to carefully and creatively use the art of manipulation to outfox their opponents and win a cash prize”.
With 11 players who are all extremely intellectual and clever, the game comprises of 12 rounds before a winner is crowned.
Each round consists of a main match and a death match.
And each player takes part in the main match before a winner and eliminated player is determined.
Those who win the main match receive a Token of Life, which grants them immunity from the death match.
The player who places last in the main match will then choose another player to face in the death match.
The Sun has contacted ITV for comment.
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