Graham Norton’s promising new reality show The Neighbourhood has been axed after struggling to win over viewers, with ITV bosses admitting the programme failed to deliver the success they had hoped for.

The ambitious series was launched earlier this year with a major promotional campaign and was expected to become a significant new entertainment format for the broadcaster.

Instead, its ratings fell sharply after the opening episode, while viewers and critics took to social media to voice their disappointment.

ITV has now confirmed that The Neighbourhood will not return for another series, with bosses indicating that the broadcaster has learned an important lesson from the show’s failure.

The decision represents a major setback for Graham, who was expected to bring his considerable television popularity to a new primetime reality format.

The Irish presenter is best known for the hugely successful The Graham Norton Show on the BBC, where his warm interviewing style and celebrity-filled sofa have made him one of Britain’s most recognisable television hosts.

The Neighbourhood was intended to showcase him in a very different environment.

Rather than interviewing famous guests, Graham hosted a competition involving ordinary families living alongside one another and taking part in a series of challenges.

The winning family was ultimately set to receive a £250,000 prize, with the programme attempting to combine family dynamics, social experiments and reality competition.

The concept initially appeared to have plenty of potential.

ITV invested heavily in the launch and promoted the series as a bold new entertainment proposition, with the broadcaster hoping it could attract the same kind of audience that had made rival reality formats such as The Traitors so successful.

However, viewers did not respond in the numbers ITV had hoped for.

The opening episode attracted around 1.2 million viewers, but that figure quickly declined.

By the third episode, the audience had reportedly fallen to just 500,000, leaving ITV with little choice but to rethink its plans for the series.

In an embarrassing mid-series move, the broadcaster shifted the remaining episodes away from their original primetime position.

The show had initially been scheduled for a 9pm slot on ITV1, but ITV subsequently moved it to the much later time of 10.45pm and made the complete box set available to stream on ITVX.

Repeats of established programmes including Long Lost Family and Beat The Chasers were used to fill the coveted 9pm slot instead.

The move effectively placed The Neighbourhood in what television insiders often describe as a “graveyard” position, signalling just how quickly confidence in the programme had disappeared.

Despite the disappointing terrestrial ratings, insiders suggested the programme performed better on ITVX.

That offered some consolation to the production team, although it was not enough to secure another series.

An ITV spokeswoman said: “We’re really proud of The Neighbourhood – it was big, bold and ambitious – and we’d like to thank everyone in front of and behind the camera for all of their hard work and dedication in launching the series.”

She added that unfortunately the programme would not be returning for a new series “currently.”

The broadcaster has now gone further by suggesting it will concentrate on the types of reality television it already knows work for its audience.

ITV Entertainment Commissioning Editor Joe Mace said the broadcaster had “learned lessons” from The Neighbourhood and suggested that future programming would focus more heavily on live and fast-turnaround reality.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Joe acknowledged that The Neighbourhood represented an experiment that had not delivered as expected.

The concept, he explained, had initially seemed to contain many of the ingredients ITV believed could make a successful format.

The idea was to create a neighbourhood in which families could be observed and judged on how they behaved, interacted and competed.

But ITV ultimately concluded that audiences were coming to the broadcaster primarily for more familiar reality formats.

Joe said viewers had been “served the best” of those shows through programmes such as Love Island and Big Brother and indicated that the broadcaster should probably concentrate on that area.

He also acknowledged that there was a large amount of successful post-produced reality television elsewhere, suggesting that this may not be the direction ITV should pursue.

The comments provide a revealing insight into how The Neighbourhood’s failure has influenced ITV’s wider strategy.

Rather than continuing to experiment with expensive new formats, the broadcaster appears increasingly interested in relying on established brands that already have loyal audiences.

That could mean an even greater emphasis on shows such as Love Island and Big Brother, which have become important fixtures in ITV’s entertainment schedule.

The disappointment will be particularly difficult for Graham because he had spoken positively about the project before it launched.

The presenter revealed that he had initially agreed to meet the production team largely with the intention of hearing their pitch before turning down the job.

Instead, he was apparently so impressed by the concept that he changed his mind.

Graham later admitted that he thought the idea was so good that he had to accept the role.

The programme was filmed at Darwin Lake Holiday Park in Matlock, Derbyshire, where participating households were brought together to compete in a variety of games and challenges.

The format was designed around the personalities and relationships within the neighbourhood, with the families ultimately competing for the substantial £250,000 prize.

Its creators had hoped that the social element would give the show an advantage in an increasingly crowded reality television market.

Ed Daggett, Development Executive at Lifted Entertainment, the production company behind the programme, previously expressed ambitions for the show to compete with The Traitors.

He pointed to the extraordinary success of The Traitors in attracting not only committed reality fans but also viewers who might not normally watch reality television.

The hope was clearly that The Neighbourhood could replicate some of that crossover appeal.

Instead, the series struggled to generate the same level of excitement.

Social media reaction became increasingly negative as the episodes aired.

Some viewers described the programme as “drivel TV”, while others branded it “the biggest load of rubbish.”

The reaction was particularly damaging because ITV had invested heavily in marketing the show before its launch.

The broadcaster had presented The Neighbourhood as one of its major new entertainment projects, making the subsequent ratings decline all the more noticeable.

The scheduling decision also came at an awkward time.

The Neighbourhood launched in the middle of the I’m A Celebrity finale, with ITV seemingly hoping to use the huge audience for its flagship jungle show to encourage viewers to stay with the new programme.

Yet even that high-profile launch strategy failed to translate into sustained viewing figures.

The first episode attracted attention, but the rapid fall to around 500,000 viewers by episode three demonstrated that many viewers had not been persuaded to return.

For Graham, the failure is unlikely to undermine his established reputation as a television presenter.

The Graham Norton Show remains his defining television achievement, having built a loyal audience around celebrity interviews, humour and Graham’s distinctive ability to create relaxed conversations between famous guests.

The Neighbourhood was always a significant departure from that formula.

The presenter was being asked to anchor a large-scale reality competition rather than a chat show, and the programme’s disappointing performance may ultimately demonstrate how difficult it is to transfer success from one television genre into another.

For ITV, meanwhile, the decision to abandon the format appears to have provided a clear warning about the risks of investing heavily in unfamiliar reality concepts.

The broadcaster has confirmed that the full series remains available on ITVX, while episodes will continue to receive an evening television slot.

But the future is now clear: The Neighbourhood will remain a one-series experiment.

What began as an ambitious attempt to create ITV’s next major reality hit has instead become a cautionary tale about the unpredictable nature of television.

With audiences increasingly choosing where and when to watch through streaming platforms, traditional broadcasters face intense competition for attention.

ITV’s response appears to be to return to the formats that have already proved themselves.

For Graham Norton, the failed experiment may simply become an unusual footnote in an otherwise hugely successful career.

For ITV, however, the message from viewers could hardly have been clearer: sometimes even a famous presenter, a major promotional campaign and a £250,000 prize are not enough to turn an untested reality concept into the next television sensation.