I read that it was something to do with some of the crew being made redundant or having their pay cut. This made Paul angry, pointing out that these people had 'families to feed' or something, and the rest is self-explanitory. That, and that the show's budget was to be halved, IIRC. (Or was that another show?)
Given the O'Grady C4 show looked cheap to start with, I doubt it would even be made if it's series budget would have been halved. He would have had to recycle the same ideas and book the same guests series after series...
oh, wait a minute...
Anyway, that quote was O'Grady using incorrect terminology to ram home a point.
I very much doubt anyone would have been made redundant if the budget was cut - seeing as most of the back office production staff and studio crew members are freelance. They would not have been sacked or fired, they just wouldn't get re-hired for the next series and would look through the pages of Broadcast Freelance website a bit more closely in the weeks after the last series finished.
And as most names turned up in the credits to make 'The Five O'Clock Show', it seems that was a piece of blantant look-at me-grandstanding by O'Grady, which appears to have little, or no, real effect on the employment status of anyone who worked on his former Channel 4 show.
Whats the phrase I'm looking for here, oh yeah, stroppy old drama queen....