Spoons

Spoons, a sketch show about relationships co-created by Charlie Brooker, was given the heave-ho after one series by Channel 4, despite positive clippings stretching all the way to America, where the New York Times praised its "tight thematic focus" which "captured the moments - awkward, destructive and banal - of young dating and married life".

Poor ratings were cited. Spoons scooped up around 1.7m viewers at 10pm on Friday nights, which was indeed a big drop from that slot's summer average of three million. Problem was, the fact that the slot had been bookended by Big Brother was totally ignored. With an inflated opinion of the worth of their own slot, the Channel 4 bean counters consigned Spoons to the scrapheap. And of course now that slot struggles to draw more than a million. It's almost enough to make you wish they'd made a decision by actually watching the programme.