Channel 4 has scrapped Steph’s Packed Lunch after three years due to “audience habits changing quicker than ever”.
The broadcaster said the daytime series will wrap in December and not continue into 2024 – and that its desire to “level up” has also played a role in the decision.
Steph McGovern has hosted the series since 2020, which features showbiz interviews, food, news, and consumer advice, all live from Leeds docks.
Channel 4 said: “With audience habits changing quicker than ever, we have to make difficult decisions about which programmes to invest in to best drive our digital-first strategy, and we have decided not to recommission Steph's Packed Lunch when its existing production contract ends in December 2023.”
It added that while the Leeds setting of Steph’s Packed Lunch helped it meet its target of producing 50 per cent of its content outside the M25, the production costs would be reinvested into other regional programmes.
The show began as The Steph Show before changing name and runs for 140 minutes. Anton Du Beke, Denise van Outen, and Greg Wise have all been regular guests.
McGovern has not commented.
Who is Steph McGovern?
The North Shields-born presenter has been a feature on magazine-style shows for years and was previously a regular on BBC Breakfast.
She has also presented Pocket Money Pitch, Shop Well for Less?, Watchdog, and Have I Got News for You. On the latter, she said that Donald Trump called her “beautiful” in a 2012 interview, but she brushed him off telling him she’d “heard better lines in Middlesbrough's Club Bongo”.
A spokesperson for production companies Expectation and Can Can said: “We’ve had over three fantastic years producing Steph’s Packed Lunch together and working with the brilliant Steph McGovern and the outstanding on-screen family of talent.
“We’re very disappointed that, despite building a loyal audience, we don’t get to continue brightening up 12-2 on Channel 4. Leeds didn’t have a live television community four years ago and it’s been a privilege to build a team which boasts some of the brightest, sharpest TV producers in the country.”
McGovern has one child with her girlfriend, who is believed to work for the BBC.
