Channel 5's director of programming Ben Frow has admitted that commissioning Penguin A&E with Lorraine Kelly has been his biggest mistake during his time with the broadcaster.
The 2016 documentary series saw the daytime stalwart visit a hospital in South Africa that specialises in treating "poorly penguins" but it did not resonate with viewers, pulling in an audience of just 880,000.
Appearing at the Edinburgh TV Festival today, Frow was asked for his biggest regret and replied: "What I learned was you never, ever, ever presume that something is going to work. So the biggest failure I remember at my time at Channel 5 was Penguin A&E with Lorraine Kelly.
"We commissioned two episodes and we were so certain that the combination of penguins, A&E and Lorraine Kelly was a slam dunk that we doubled the order, only to find that it launched and sank like a stone.
"When people now talk about launching a new series and they feel really good about I say 'Don't say that'. Do not presume that just because all the ingredients add up, this is going to work!"
The bonus two episodes of the show were burned off in early 2017.
Neil Wilkes
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