Victoria Derbyshire (the programme) - now with added Reith

Also in this day and age many people just like to protest and complain about every single thing, to make them part of the story and to stir the pot.

Half the people complaining have probably never watched VD, and has the opposite to it being axed be announced, would be complaining about that as well.

Won’t make a jot of difference.

200,000 viewers - I know it is tough, but looking at those ratings, you can see the BBC point of view.

How about the BBC brings back 'That's Life' with Derbyshire and co? She could become the next Rantzen!

Which is what? ''Despite it's PSB value we're getting out of the news business because it doesn't rate well as Homes Under The Hammer''

I can't imagine BBC Two would rate that well at that time of day regardless of what they show. Let's face it it's only housewives, retired people, students and the unemployed who would be at home and watch TV at that time and the majority would automatically switch to BBC One or ITV. BBC Two is like Channel 4 or Five in the respect that people only tune in to watch something specific.

What did they use to show at that time before the Derbyshire show was invented and how did it rate?

Spending a lot of money on a show which does not attract a large enough audience on a mainstream channel, that is the BBC thinking here. They are under pressure to cut costs each year, sorry, but something has to be axed, and this is it. There is no mercy. When you have a budget to cut, you cut where you have to. Budget cuts are not meant to be nice, and there is an expectation from some viewers who think cuts will not affect any shows, sorry they will.

They're not completely giving up on it. Fran Unsworth made it clear that the content found on the Derbyshire programme will be continue to be part of BBC News after the show is axed.

However, because of the ratings being that low, they can no longer justify the amount spent on the programme as a linear show.

Online, they've been successful in targeting the audience underserved by mainstream BBC News bulletins, but as a standalone show, it's been a failure.

VD has never been a popular show, especially on this forum. The team can complain they didn't know all they like - the writing was obviously on the wall when the show was cut by an hour.

I'm fascinated by how highly regarded it suddenly seems to be by the people defending it. I've never heard such praise whilst the show was airing normally.

It's never caught hold the ratings and the BBC are not going to continue with a daily programme, especially live, if it's not cutting through on the ratings. Working Lunch was axed for the same reasons due to a decline in ratings (though some would argue it was more to do with the unpopular format change).

I had to admire Victoria for continuing to present the show during her cancer diagnosis. But those type of stories and investigative journalism would most likely gain extra exposure spread across BBC News bulletins rather than allocated airtime within a mid-morning female-orientated slot.

I was thinking the same thing. Apart from its BAFTA win, I don't recall many people in the industry and elsewhere paying it the slightest bit of attention, good or bad (outside of TV Forum where the perception has been overwhelmingly negative). It seems to me that the axe falling on it has just been latched on to as another rod to bash the BBC with. Clearly, cuts have got to be made so something has to give - even if I do feel for Derbyshire learning about the cancellation via a newspaper article (if there is any truth in that).

I have no doubt that when the full details of the news cuts are announced (reportedly) next week, there's going to be people complaining about anything and everything which will be axed/cut/trimmed/etc. For the BBC critics, they're going to have an absolute field day


Let's be honest, the BBC could announce that they'll stop making new 'Oneness' idents and you'll probably still have a politician writing a Guardian op-ed about how it's a horrible decision.

I suspect it is more that Newsroom Live gets very similar ratings to Victoria Derbyshire. I don't know the funding balance between BBC Two and BBC News for Derbyshire. The fact that core News channel output gets similar ratings to Derbyshire but Derbyshire costs significantly more to produce as an hour, must be a factor.

Derbyshire's linear costs (larger studio, camera operators, guest bookers, talent costs etc.) will be reduced if the show is axed and replaced by an hour of News Channel output. Whether the show's original journalism and film making continues as part of a slimmed down team - or the team get merged into another department within News - it's going to be tough to keep the original spirit and flavour of the show's films I suspect.

It's a real shame in terms of the original journalism, but the BBC has very tough choices to make at the moment, and will continue to have to make these touch choices for a while yet.