From The Voice to Birds of a Feather – as Great British Bake Off moves to C4 here are the other shows that left the BBC
The Beeb has missed out again but here are the other hit shows that have done a bit of channel hopping
This week the nation was rocked by the announcement that after a year of exhaustive negations the production company that produces The Great British Bake Off will be pulling out of the BBC.
Just hours later the popular baking show was snapped up by Channel 4.
Viewers have been left concerned that the C4 reincarnation of the programme will be lacking, amid revelations that hosts Mel and Sue will not be continuing with the next season.
Further upset is on the horizon as many have predicted that the upheaval will see judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood quit too.
So as we dry our eyes and vow to soak up every bit of soggy-bottom goodness from this current series, we take a look at the other shows which have (with varied success levels) quit the Beeb.
The Voice to ITV
Last year the BBC announced that they would not be continuing their contract with The Voice.
In a statement Mark Linsey, the acting director of the BBC said that it “wouldn’t get into a bidding war or pay inflated prices to keep the show.”
It was later announced that ITV would be taking over hosting the popular singing show.
It is yet to be seen how The Voice will fare in its new home as the next series is scheduled for January 2017.
Although it has been confirmed that Will.i.am will be returning and it’s possible Tom Jones will join him while Kaiser Chiefs front-man Ricky Wilson has said that he will not be on the panel.
The original team of Top Gear to Amazon
You would have had to be living under a rock to miss the fact that Jeremy Clarkson was fired by the BBC last year.
But for those who found themselves stranded on a dessert island between March and July last year- things went down a bit like this:
Jeremy Clarkson completed a long day of filming and retired to his hotel for a nice warm plate of food.
Warm food was not available so Jeremy kicked up a fuss and the resulting kerfuffle - or “fracas” as it is so often referred – ended with a producer getting a fat lip and a barrage of rude words.
Jeremy Clarkson was fired and with him went his merry band of men, James May and Richard Hammond.
The driving trio took their motor know-how over to Amazon where they launched “The Grand Tour”.
Granted the BBC have kept Top Gear, with its studio and logo and masked professional “The Stig” but many argue that the presenters were the show.
Top Gear survived the reshuffle and a subsequent series aired earlier in the year, but filming was rife with rumours of fall-outs between new hosts Matt Le Blanc and Chris Evans and ratings plummeted to an all-time low.
The Grand Tour is yet to be released so only time will tell if it revs the audience’s engine.
Jonathan Ross to ITV
These naughty presenters have kept the BBC’s HR department very busy in recent years with Jonathan Ross also undergoing a sensational sacking.
The cheeky radio presenter and his comedian side-kick Russell Brand left a controversial voice message on the phone of Andrew Sachs, who had pulled out of appearing in the radio show at the last minute.
In the message Jonathan revealed that Russell had previously engaged in amorous bed-time activities with Andrew’s granddaughter.
Jonathan and Russell were forced to apologise for the impish prank and both were suspended from the BBC.
Jonathan picked up his signature banter and parked it down at ITV although he had to take a serious pay cut from £6 million a year at the BBC to just £1.5 million.
The show has just started its 11th season.
Birds of a feather to ITV
Those chirping birds were put out to roost by the BBC way back in 1998 after a ten year run of the popular British sitcom.
But two years ago when show creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran decided to reopen the aviary and bring back Birds of a Feather, they initially approached the BBC.
They were offered a one-off Christmas special and unenthused by the prospect of a single episode, the writers packed up their wares and hot-footed it to the ITV, where they were welcomed with open arms.
The show went down a treat and with an average of 7.8 million viewers out-doing ITV’s most popular sitcoms.
Morecambe and Wise to ITV
Way back in 1978 Morecambe and Wise became one of the first channel-hoppers, ditching the BBC in favour of ITV.
The move disgruntled BBC execs so much that they approached parliament to try and rein in the spending power of the independent rival channel.
They combated the inevitable ratings loss by re-showing the comedy duo’s 1977 Christmas special on Christmas Eve that year as it had initially pulled in a crown of 27 million.
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