Frankie Boyle's New World Order, the popular and irreverent comedy debate show, has been cancelled by the BBC, the broadcaster has confirmed. The show ran for six seasons and it follows the recent axing of other BBC topical comedy shows the Mash Report and Mock The Week.
A BBC spokesperson told The Mirror: "We would like to thank Frankie Boyle and all those involved for six great series of New World Order, and we look forward to seeing what he does next on the BBC. Boyle himself wrote on social media following the news, stating: "Ah well, there’s to be no more New World Order on the BBC. Not surprising in the current climate, I suppose. Just very grateful to have had six series of working with the funniest people in the business."
The BBC Two show focused on the comedian examining the week's news with journalists, fellow stand-up comedians and the audience. Its cancellation sparked some outrage on social media.
Kevin Price tweeted: "Can't Believe they cancelled Frankie Boyle's New World Order. Loved that show. Hopefully he'll get a new show on a channel not sucking up to the Government. Least he's on Taskmaster next week."
Alan McWhan said: "Frankie Boyle's New World Order cancelled. Mash Report. Mock the Week. Frankie Boyle. Silencing the satirical voices one by one."
Boyle has had many controversial moments on television due to his outrageous jokes and dark sense of humour, including a quip he made at Latitude Festival where he spoke about This Morning host Holly Willoughby. In the material, he made reference to raping and murdering the TV presenter, but when questioned about the comment during a later Q&A, he argued that the context of the joke had to be taken into account and that it had been mis-transcribed as "garbled nonsense" with "a concept and wording no comic would ever use".
He added: ”There is a very long routine in my current show which concludes that certain jokes are probably a product of toxic masculinity. You’d struggle to be offended.”
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In 2008 he made a joke on Mock The Week about Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington. The comedian said: “The thing that nobody really said about Rebecca Adlington is that she looks pretty weird. She looks like someone who’s looking at themselves in the back of a spoon.
“And then, when she arrived back on the flight she met her boyfriend. Did you see her boyfriend? He was really attractive. He was like a male model. So from that I have deduced that Rebecca Adlington is very dirty – I mean if you just take into account how long she can hold her breath…”
The material was found to be derogatory and sexist by the BBC Trust, who later condemned the comedian.
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