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The contestants remain marooned on Great Barrier Island but BBC One has pulled the reality series Castaway from its prime-time slot after viewers fled the NZ-based show.
BBC bosses acted ruthlessly after Sunday night's instalment of the series, which placed 13 strangers on Great Barrier Island off New Zealand, sunk to a new low of 2.1 million viewers, the Times newspaper reported.
The series attracted controversy in Britain after New Zealand media revealed that the castaways's "isolated" camp was only a 30-minute drive from a store, chemist, cafe, golf club and an airfield.
Castaway's audience has slumped from 4.1 million at its launch a fortnight ago. It delivered the lowest-ever recorded ratings for BBC One in the prime-time 9pm Sunday slot.
From April 15, it will be moved to three half-hour episodes at 7pm on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays - against ITV1's Emmerdale.
In Auckland, where TVNZ bought rights to the series before even the first episode was filmed, a spokeswoman said programmers were not concerned about the British ratings.
"We feel the fact that the show is set in NZ will have a particular appeal for an NZ audience," she said. It was important to also take into account the fact that ratings were partly affected by what was showing on other channels at the same time.
The TVNZ programmers have not yet decided when Castaway will be shown here, or in which timeslot.
- NZPA
