Channel 4 axes beloved Christmas show as host announces cost-saving cuts to ‘devastated’ fans
CHANNEL 4 has axed a beloved Christmas show – as the host announced cost-saving cuts to ‘devastated’ fans.
TV fans have their staple festive favourites that they look forward to every year.
One of them is Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas, hosted by Kirstie Allsopp, which typically airs on weekday evenings in December.
But Kirstie, 52, had some sad news for fans who were asking when the 2023 series would start.
On Monday, one fan tweeted her on X: “@KirstieMAllsopp when does the daily handmade Christmas show start? I love that show.”
Kirstie replied: “It doesn’t this year. Everyone at @Channel4 had to do some economising and our daily shows took a hit.
“But we’ll be back next year, and we have one lovely show at 8pm on Sunday the 10th December.”
The news did not go down well with her followers, with one writing: “Devastated to find no @KirstieMAllsopp Homemade Christmas this year.
“My six-year-old and I binged last year’s series yesterday as the official start of Christmas but what do we do now?!”
Retweeting the post, Kirstie replied: “We are just as sad, but there is one brand new show at 8pm on Sunday the 10th of December and it’s lovely.
“Plus let’s all make it clear to @Channel4 that budget cuts must fall elsewhere next year.”
It was first revealed in June that the show would be taken off air this year as Channel 4 strives to cut costs amid an ad marketing slump of between 10 and 20 per cent.
Kirstie told Deadline at the time: “I know it’s not personal. 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.”
Handmade Christmas first aired in 2014 and while a 2023 series hadn’t officially been greenlit by Channel 4, early preparations were reportedly underway.
Kirstie added to Deadline that around 30 people on production would lose work as a result of the decision to rest the show.
She said: “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.”