Katie and Peter's talk show dropped

With chat show king Michael Parkinson having stepped out of the spotlight to enjoy a retirement of cricket and wandering the windswept Yorkshire Moors, the nation's bookmakers were never going to make Katie Price and Peter Andre the favourites to step up to the throne.

Indeed, the very fact that the couple were given their own talk show in the first place baffled most discerning TV viewers, particularly those who had seen enough of them in the I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here jungle, where their romance first blossomed.

However, ITV producers clearly felt otherwise and, given that the presenter formerly known as Jordan has gone from doing nothing more than taking her clothes off and starring into the middle distance to being a best-selling author and star of her own reality TV show, clearly the audience demand was there.

But, after just one series, the cynics have been proved right, with 'Katie and Peter: Unleashed' axed following a string of complaints and, arguably more important for those wielding the power, poor viewing figures.

The news is unlikely to surprise anyone, including the surgically-enhanced couple themselves.

The writing looked on the wall almost from the start, with early guest Jack P Shepherd – Corrie's David Platt – calling it crude, while even Nicole Scherzinger, who makes a living wearing very little and singing about doing so with the Pussycat Dolls, felt in a position to call it "ridiculous".

As one source close to Katie and Peter told the Sun: "It was always a risk. Jordan and Peter are an engaging couple and people like them but it soon became apparent that they are not chat show hosts. No one ever took it that seriously but we hoped it would be a flirty, cheeky show like Charlotte Church does or Lily Allen.

"They're not too fussed. They know it wasn't their finest hour," they added, kindly overlooking the reissue of 'Mysterious Girl' or the decision to sell pictures of their Disney-esque wedding to a glossy tabloid magazine.

So who will step up and be the next to join a pantheon of greats that includes Parky and Wogan?

Of course, the argument could be made that Jonathan Ross long ago usurped the title of the nation's favourite celebrity griller, managing to pull off the kind of crudity Katie and Peter could only dream of while ensuring his cheeky smile kept him laughing all the way to the bank.

However, after a shaky start, the smart money should be on Lily Allen. Now just as well-known as the dumped pair, but far less likely to split opinion, the youngster is likely to have learned from being thrown in at the deep end, particularly when it comes to realising that, like Wossy proves every week, viewers will only be won over by shock tactics for so long before they crave some decent celebrity insights.

And with the BBC seemingly keen to commission a second series of 'Lily Allen and Friends', the end of the straight guy talk show host could well and truly be over.