TVZoneUK and The Sun have reported that UKTV’s digital channel, U&Dave, have “shelved” Battle In The Box (BITB) after 1 series of 8 episodes.

Except when you read into the details it says that “there are no plans for a 2^nd series but it could return some time in the future”.

Richard Osman said recently (may have been on The Rest is Entertainment) that “resting” a show is different to “cancelling”. If you cancel something then there is the chance of another channel snapping it up – whereas resting gives you the option of re-starting production.

Not to make a drama out of a crisis but The Sun is laying on the hyperbole a bit when it says “Jimmy Carr has been dealt a huge blow”.

To use one of Jimmy’s phrases “let’s right size this”.

He was a hired presenter on a show that a Production Company made. He did a job, he got paid, the show did ok (see this ratings graph). Seeing as Last One Laughing UK is a HUGE hit at the moment, I doubt he will see this show being “rested” as a “huge blow”.

Why did it not take off? Just my personal opinion but it could be:

• It was on U&Dave and not everyone has Sky – too many streamers to choose from now and no one has enough money for all of them
• Dave changed its name to U&Dave and confused a lot of people – this show was supposed to help the relaunch
• The episodes with the “known” names were very funny (Joe Swash giving himself diarrhoea, for example) but there were a number of lesser-known names and these didn’t work so well
• It didn’t feel like Jimmy was there all of the time – I could be wrong but the way it was filmed it seemed like he did some voiceover bits that were slotted in. I would have liked him to have tormented the participants more in person.