3:16PM, May 08, 2009
Richard and Judy have quit their talk show New Position on Watch TV network.
The husband and wife duo called it a day due to falling ratings.
They controversially left Channel 4 last year, and joined brand new channel Watch in a blaze of publicity.
But despite high profile guests, including Hollywood actors Samuel L. Jackson and Mickey Rourke, it wasn't enough to repeat the success of their chat show on Channel 4.
The pair whose partnership spans 21 years, were bringing in less than 20,00 viewers - a far cry from their hey day as the saviours of daytime TV when they were watched by millions.
A statement from Watch said: "Ratings had not been in line with expectations and new audience research has prompted Watch to re-focus its direction towards family skewed entertainment and away from topical discussion based output."
Richard and Judy said: "Some you win, some you lose. It’s a shame we couldn’t get this one to fly because both we and our brilliant young production team were genuinely proud of the show and the guests it attracted.
"But it became obvious that it wasn’t the right fit with a brand new pay-for-view digital channel. Many of our former viewers have told us they simply couldn’t find us there. When we started we said we wanted to get ahead of the curve, as British television inevitably goes digital.
"Now we’re both going on to other projects, together and separately."
It seems like the writing was on the wall for a while and the plan for the presenters to go solo was already set in place.
In an interview Richard gave on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in March this year he said: "I think we both feel we have done pretty much all we can do as a partnership in terms of the talk shows, but I think probably we both feel the need to diversify.
"It has been over 20 years doing the same kind of thing and there are tantalising possibilities in terms of solo projects or doing one-off projects together.
"I am not saying we will never work together again - I'm sure we will."
Their last show goes on July 3.
Find out when Richard & Judy is showing on TV.
