ITV is shutting down one of its major channels and is moving The Only Way Is Essex and The Real Housewives of Cheshire over to ITV2 after the success of Love Island and Big Brother. TOWIE currently airs on ITVBe, which launched in 2014, and the channel was previously the home for Georgia Tommy: Baby Steps and Ferne McCann: My Family and Me.
Now, TV bosses are making ITV2 the home of reality TV, with all future series broadcasting conducted from there. An insider told The Sun: “ITV has seen incredible success and record breaking numbers of viewers on ITV2, so following that success they’ll be shutting ITVBe and movie TOWIE onto ITV2, which will now be the home of reality. ITVBe shuts in June, then the new series of TOWIE will debut on ITV2 in Autumn.”
It comes after the outlet revealed that Sam and Billie Faiers are reuniting for a new series, which will focus on them and how they juggle their busy careers. Originally expected to broadcast on ITVBe, the sisters’ new series will also move to ITV2 now.
As will Georgia, 33, and 32-year-old dad Tommy’s upcoming fly-on-the-wall series. Love Island is arguably one of the biggest shows on ITV, with the 2024 series launch raking in an impressive 2.2million viewers. TOWIE is ITV’s longest-running reality show, which launched back in 2010.
The final of the first series drew in 737,000 viewers but last year it was reported less than 50,000 were tuning into the iconic show. Following the major changes, bosses are hoping a fresh channel will give the Essex show the audience it deserves.
It comes after ITV confirmed that their “expensive” reality TV show Drama Queens will not be returning fto ITVBe for a secon series despite its star-studded cast.
The eight-part series was introduced to viewers earlier this year as fans of Emmerdale, Coronation Street, and even Hollyoaks were able to discover the daily lives of some of their favourite soap stars including Lucy Fallon, Roxy Shahidi, Amy Walsh, and Jorgie Porter.
Breaking the news to The Sun, a source claimed that Drama Queens had become “quite a difficult and expensive to make”, particularly as the soap stars also had to fit additional filming into their already busy schedules.
They told the outlet: “Drama Queens was launched amid a lot of excitement and fanfare, but proved logistically quite difficult and xpensive to make. Luring the talent to open up about their personal lives was costly and they all had busy filming schedules for their various actign jobs and family commitments.”
The insider went on: “Plus the soap fanbase didn’t translate to automatic audiences as reality viewers tend to be quite a younger demographic. In the end, producers decided it was best to leave it as a one-off series and focus on new projects and trial new formats.”
A spokesperson for the broadcaster then added: “There are no current plans for a second series of Drama Queens but the first series is available for viewers to enjoy on ITVX, and we wouldn’t rule out revisiting the show in the future.”