Matt Lucas Awards recommissioned by BBC One
Matt Lucas's comedy awards show, The Matt Lucas Awards, is to return to BBC One with a second series, producer and co-creator Ashley Blaker has confirmed.
Adapted from popular Radio 2 chat show format And The Winner Is..., the series sees prizes awarded in a range of weird and wonderful categories. Titles handed out in the first series, which ended with a compilation special last week, included 'Least Likely To Have Actually Occurred Bible Story', 'Silliest Hair Ever Seen On A Guest's Head', and 'Smuggest Nation Of People'.
And The Winner Is... ran for two series from 2010 before being piloted by BBC One last summer.
However, many fans have been critical of The Matt Lucas Awards' deviation from the original radio format, and changes made since the pilot, which was released for public viewing on the BBC Comedy website. Notably, taking the glitzy faux-awards show setting and placing the show in - purportedly - Matt's flat has come under criticism, whilst a number of press reviews and commentators on our forums expressed that some guests seemed uncomfortable and even confused by the show.
The series also lost viewers throughout the run, ending with 1.67 million (a 12.2% audience share) for the seventh (highlights compilation) episode, after starting with 2.56 m (17.3%) in April. However, the numbers remained acceptable for the show's 10:35pm Tuesday timeslot, with final viewing figures resulting in an average audience of 1.97 million across the series.
Press reviews for the series were also rather negative, with The Stage describing it as "a show in the grips of an identity crisis", and The Independent noting "Are the guests' suggestions their own, or are they supplied for them? It doesn't look as if they care much either way."
BBC bosses, however, are clearly more disposed to the format after its radio success. Series 2 is expected to be recorded in the autumn, with broadcast likely around Christmas or early in 2013.