Jo Brand has said ITV has got its "target audience wrong" after axing ‘Benidorm’ and ‘Birds of a Feather’.
The 61-year-old comedian doesn’t understand the channel’s controversial to drop their long-running comedy shows and insisted that broadcasters think their "viewers" are "a lot younger" than they actually are.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz at the press premiere of the musical on Tuesday (19.02.19), Jo said: "My feeling about comedy is that every single channel seems to think its viewers are a lot younger than they already are. I think the thing is older viewers – I include myself in that because I am older sadly and I can’t deny it anymore – want to watch stuff for them.
"Everyone is chasing the youth ratings but the problem with that is that I’ve got teenage daughters. They’re not watching telly they’re watching it on their phones and when they can. So actually it seems to me that everyone’s got their target audience wrong. People love Benidorm so I would say don’t cancel things like. Why not carry on?"
Jo’s comments come after ITV’s director of television announced earlier this month that it was dropping ‘Birds of a Feather’ and ‘Benidorm’.
Kevin Lygo, ITV’s Director of Television, said: "We had success with ‘Birds of a Feather’, that was our most successful sitcom in years, but it’s come to a sort of natural end."
Meanwhile, ‘Great British Bake Off Extra Slice’ host Jo previously confessed that she is working on a new ‘OAPs behaving badly’ sitcom, written with ‘Damned’ co-creator Morwenna Banks, after feeling that pensioners are becoming invisible in society.
She said: "Older people are just people. I feel letting an entire generation of people just fade into the background just because they are going to die a bit earlier than young people is not fair."
Jo Brand says ITV is chasing ‘youth ratings’
