The Daily Mirror’s first edition splash informed readers that the BBC was ditching its Saturday night talent show, The Voice.
But it was the story itself that was ditched by the newspaper. It vanished completely from the paper and was replaced in its second and subsequent editions with a very different front page about flight MH17 shot down over Ukraine.
Why? Well, the newspaper had clearly got it hopelessly wrong over the fate of the TV programme. As the Guardian reported, the BBC is expected to hang on to The Voice and is “thought to be close to agreeing a new deal to extend the show by up to three years when its current contract runs out after next year’s fifth series.”
By contrast, the Mirror’s Nicola Methven reported in her scoop that the BBC had “caved in to Tory pressure and ditched the show.” She wrote:
“Senior Beeb executives facing savage Tory cuts are understood to have been ordered not to get into a bidding war over future series of the Saturday night talent blockbuster, which has cost £55m so far.
They have given up on screening a sixth run in 2017, leaving the door open for rivals ITV to snap up the show, which pulls in 8m viewers.”
And she even quoted an anonymous “senior source” as saying: “We’d really like to hang on to the Voice, it’s a brilliant show and viewers love it, but we won’t get into a bidding war with ITV.”
And she had a second source too, writing: “Another insider added: ‘The BBC has had no choice but to walk away. In the face of all the cuts being made following the licence fee settlement it was impossible to compete. It’s a sad day, because it’s a BBC show.’”
More of a sad day for the Mirror, methinks.
