Leigh Francis, who plays comedy character Keith Lemon, has announced that Celebrity Juice has been cancelled, and will finish with two specials later this year. It comes after a number of changes to the format, with Laura Whitmore and Emily Atack stepping in as team captains after Fearne Cotton, Holly Willoughby and Mel B left.
Leigh has thanked fans and the crew at ITV for allowing the programme to air for so long. Taking to Instagram, he shared a montage of clips from the programme over the years, featuring footage of the likes of Emma Bunton, Pamela Anderson and Verne Troyer.
Playing over the clip was an emotional song that ended with: "Thank you everybody, goodnight, I love you."
Alongside the footage, he wrote: "After 14 years, 26 series, 300 eps @CelebJuice is concluding later this year with two farewell specials.
"Thank you so so much to everyone who watched, to the team captains, guests, crew and itv2. It was the longest most fun party! I had a wonderful time. Big love x."
Celebrity Juice has been broadcast since 2008. The show is written and presented by Leigh Francis in the role of his alterego Keith Lemon, and its current team captains Laura Whitmore and Emily Atack. The format for the series was first suggested in 2007, after the final series of Leigh Francis' Channel 4 sketch show Bo' Selecta!.
ITV approached Francis to create a show featuring Keith Lemon, and after the success of the five-part series Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour, the channel commissioned Celebrity Juice. The original premise of the show was to see which team knows most about the week's tabloid news stories, although later series focus more on the comedy factor of the participating celebrity guests and games involving them, rather than discussing the week's news.
Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby were the show's original team captains. In December 2018, Cotton announced that she would leave the series after 10 years in order to pursue other projects.
She was replaced by Paddy McGuinness. McGuinness left after one series and was replaced by Mel B. In 2020, it was announced that Willoughby had decided to quit the series after 12 years on the show. She made her final appearance as team captain at the end of the 23rd series.
Mel B also departed at the end of series 23. On 10 September 2020, it was announced that Laura Whitmore and Emily Atack had joined the show as team captains. On 29 March 2021, it was announced that Maya Jama had joined the show as a regular panellist.
