Celebrity Juice ending after 14 years

[iloveTV1]

The Keith Lemon panel show has been confirmed to be ending this year following two farewell specials. A long overdue decision in my opinion.

https://mobile.twitter.com/lemontwittor/...6652341248

[JHarper_2021]

Truly an end of an era, definitely a huge shift of change for ITV2 to end Celebrity Juice after 14 years, have watched on and off for the last 10 years depending on who was on the show. Celebrity Juice should've ended years ago IMO

[Ash101]

It’s a shame as I have enjoyed the freshness that Laura and Emily being on the panel bought to the show - but maybe it was a few years too late.

Panel shows are very much in low appetite across most channels right now?

[Brekkie]

A few years too late and with Emily and Laura the dynamic changed from weird mate to creepy uncle.

Time for Leigh Francis to retire Keith Lemon IMO. He's a talented guy - time for him to become someone else again.

[GraemeT]

Agree Keith lemon needs to retire also

[London Lite]

While I wasn't a fan of Juice, it represented a period in pop culture. It probably should have been axed after Holly decided to leave as the dynamic changed.

As others have mentioned, I think Leigh Francis has rinsed the Keith Lemon character for all it's got and should move on.

[TVenthusiasm]

Well, that's another TV show that I've enjoyed biting the dust.

I loved Celeb Juice for a while and started watching in around 2015-2016 and I loved it. So the fact that it's going off air is really sad, as some segments were really funny especially the classic Don't Show Keith Your Teeth. Really sad news indeed.

I really hope the show is preserved in the future for future generations of people because it was quality TV done right. R.I.P Celebrity Juice

[ethanh05]

Well, that's another TV show that I've enjoyed biting the dust.

I loved Celeb Juice for a while and started watching in around 2015-2016 and I loved it. So the fact that it's going off air is really sad, as some segments were really funny especially the classic Don't Show Keith Your Teeth. Really sad news indeed.

I really hope the show is preserved in the future for future generations of people because it was quality TV done right. R.I.P Celebrity Juice

Imagine wandering a barren wasteland a hundred years from now, finding the one television left in the world, and the only programme on it is Celebrity Juice.

[RDJ]

About time. Way past its sell by date.

It should've ended about 5 years earlier whilst it was still on a high. Nowadays these shows just get churned out til the audience grow bored and tired with it.

[Gary Baldy]

Long overdue- I did enjoy the early series but it just became too formulaic after a while- still a good laugh but definitely the right decision to axe it. Knew this was coming for the last few years anyway after Fearne left (as I remember Leigh saying he wouldn't do it without both of them being there) which probably should have been the time it ended really (dud series with Paddy McGuiness and Mel B captaining, carved out a new identity with Laura and Emily but was just a different show by that time- also think Emily and Laura are too similar really whereas Holly and Fearne's personalities somewhat contrasted each other)- it also was in an awkward position of being too risque for the main channel, but the cultural references being made would be too old for an ITV2 'youth' audience to understand. It was still a fun bit of post-pub TV but not the same show.

Celebrity Juice *could* still work elsewhere if it went back-to-basics though and Leigh toned down the Keith character (as Brekkie mentioned, Keith used to just be an 'odd mate' character whereas these days he's 'pervy horndog'- I know the character was always supposed to be a bit promiscuous but he was flanderized too much) back to his original level- I could see the show working somewhere like Dave or Comedy Central perhaps? I wouldn't be surprised if it was picked up for a repeat run on either of those channels.

[Brekkie]

What's been quite nice to see today and a refreshing change really is that whilst everyone agrees it's a few years too late the overwhelming reaction has been one that appreciated it for when it was good rather than criticised it for when it was bad.

[Larry the Loafer]

I'm of the common opinion that it is a long overdue decision. I stopped watching years ago, but fairly recently watched back an episode from the "glory days", and it's easy to forget how good it was.

The problem was it went from lampooning celebrity culture to embracing it, and it's something that can be said in general about Leigh Francis, a man who made his name rinsing the rich and famous before becoming best friends with them. Lest we forget the role of Rufus Hound whose sole job was to be the man who looked down on all the celebrity faff and mocked those who deserved it (the story about Kim Woodburn is one to look up, see his interview with Richard Herring).

For me, it became a show where a bunch of mates got drunk and farted about with jokes they knew would make each other laugh, but didn't really bother whether it landed with the audience. I do wonder where Leigh will go from here, because as has been said, the Keith Lemon character has worn thin enough that he's becoming known more for his gambling website adverts than anything else.

His work on the otherwise flawled series he did with Amanda Holden showed Leigh still has a talent for character comedy. I just wonder if he's too deep into the proverbial swimming pool of celebrity status to ever regain that flare he had as a relative outsider of that culture.

[Gary Baldy]

Comedian Fern Brady seems to be celebrating this news but her tweet comes across unnecessarily nasty to me. Perhaps bitter she was never invited on?


But Celebrity Juice was never really your typical comedy panel show- I think that’s why I liked it- wider variety of guests. The likes of Catsdown, QI, Would I Lie To You have the same old comedian’s faces in rotation whereas Celeb Juice had a wider range- yeah there were some comedians (Katherine Ryan featured quite frequently in the final couple of years of the show; Jimmy Carr and Johnny Vegas mainstays from very early on; Rufus Hound) but the ultimate focus was on the other ‘celebrities’ because it was usually unlikely to see them on these types of shows.

There’s an interesting point to be made in her tweet about female comedian representation and whilst yes, that’s an issue across the more conventional panel shows but Celebrity Juice probably had the best gender balance in terms of guests of all the panel shows; it’s just that their guests (whether male or female) typically weren’t comedians so it’s not really a good example to use to demonstrate the underrepresentation:

[Steve in Pudsey]

It's an interesting point that Juice used a much wider range of guests. I guess in certain aspects it's a spiritual successor to Shooting Stars.

I didn't think the Emily/Laura/Keith dynamic worked as well as the Holly/Fearne/Keith dynamic. I think part of that was that Holly and Fearne were people the audience grew up with as kids TV hosts, well known to be good friends, both presenting respectable shows as their day jobs, so seeing them swearing and play these outrageous games had an extra edge to it that the host of Love Island and a comedy actress don't really have.

Emily and Laura also seemed a lot more in the background, rather than effectively being co hosts. (Of course Holly and Fearne were both massively more experienced studio TV presenters than Leigh) Maybe that was just because of social distancing and having mainly individual rounds.

[Gary Baldy]

It's an interesting point that Juice used a much wider range of guests. I guess in certain aspects it's a spiritual successor to Shooting Stars.

I didn't think the Emily/Laura/Keith dynamic worked as well as the Holly/Fearne/Keith dynamic. I think part of that was that Holly and Fearne were people the audience grew up with as kids TV hosts, well known to be good friends, both presenting respectable shows as their day jobs, so seeing them swearing and play these outrageous games had an extra edge to it that the host of Love Island and a comedy actress don't really have.

Emily and Laura also seemed a lot more in the background, rather than effectively being co hosts. (Of course Holly and Fearne were both massively more experienced studio TV presenters than Leigh) Maybe that was just because of social distancing and having mainly individual rounds.

Yes; they probably should have stopped after Fearne’s departure- I think in years to come, if any one’s ever nostalgic for Celebrity Juice, it would be for the Holly and Fearne era rather than the Emily and Laura one.