Peter Purves finds it "unbelievable" that a recent re-run of a ‘Blue Peter’ episode failed to attract a single viewer after the show was screened on CBBC.
The 78-year-old star – who was a presenter on the show from 1967 until 1978 – is devastated that a repeat of a past episode, which aired on the digital-only channel on June 13, got a zero rating on the official system used to measure TV audiences.
Speaking to the MirrorOnline, he said: "I think it was better when it was on mainstream television because it picked up an audience of all ages; it wasn’t just for the age group at which it aimed which was always used to be seven to 12. I know it happens from time to time, but zero is unbelievable really. If it’s true, and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t it’s a very sad reflection really. Mind, it was a repeat but even so. It’s not that obscure a channel. It’s a channel that kids know about and, if they want to find the programme, they’ll find it. If they don’t want to watch it, they won’t. It’s one of those sad things. I doubt it’s due to a drop in quality of the programme. They are very good people who run it. I always felt the programme had and projected great values, and I assume it still does."
And Janet Ellis – who also presented on the show – doesn’t think the embarrassing viewing figure is a representation of the quality of the programme and thinks it’s merely down to the fact that the repeat was screened at 2:30pm.
She explained: "I don’t think it’s a fair representation because it was a repeat of one that had been on and it was at a funny time of the day.
"As the controller said ‘if you look at that episode it’s a perfectly good one’, so I think ‘Blue Peter’ is safe. I think it’s a shame it was moved because it was nice catch-up moment in the day and a lot of pople who’d watched it when they were children enjoyed watching it again with their children together while they were waiting for another programme to come on afterwards or they were just secretly watching ‘Blue Peter’. It’s always a shame but things have changed."
Former Blue Peter stars speak out about zero rating episode
