Channel 4 has “no current plans” to bring back TFI Friday
Broadcaster suggests that last night’s show was a one-off – even though Chris Evans hopes that it may come back properly
Chris Evans may think that the door could be open to a full-scale return for TFI Friday – but Channel 4 appears to disagree.
A spokeswoman for the broadcaster assured RadioTimes.com that last night’s show was in all likelihood a one-off with no current plans for a comeback.
"The return of TFI Friday was commissioned as a live 90-minute special,” said the spokeswoman. “There are no current plans for a series.”
The news may come as a bit of a blow for Evans who indicated that he would love the show to make a proper revival last night – even if he didn't think he should be the one to present it.
Evans said last night that his radio presenter rival Nick Grimshaw (below) could be a great choice, calling the Radio 1 man back from an interview to tell viewers: "I think Nick is the future of the show. I think this is good fun for us oldies, but if this show comes back he is the guy, he is the guy.”
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Grimshaw appeared to agree, mouthing "yeah”.
At the end of the show, Evans hinted that this was on the cards, signing off with the words: "We did it before, so we could it it again, I suppose."
But Evans is a master of PR and is likely to assess the public's appetite for a TFI Friday series before lobbying Channel 4 hard. Last night he also rowed back on his assertion that he would never present BBC2 motoring favourite Top Gear, telling viewers: "I did say never, but I have downgraded that to never say never."
Before the show aired last night, TFI Friday's executive producer hadn't ruled out a return for the entertainment either, saying in yesterday's Guardian: "There’s no point in deciding whether that will happen until we do it and see what happens. We have all had fun getting back together, but the experience of doing the live show will ultimately determine whether we want to do it again."
TFI Friday won last night's 9pm slot with a peak audience of 4.2m and a 19.8% audience share.
The good news, of course, is that the door probably isn’t entirely shut.
“No current plans” of course doesn’t mean that there couldn't be plans in the future….
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