Holly Willoughby suffers major blow as Netflix show is ‘axed’ after one season
It topped the UK charts earlier this year.
British TV personality Holly Willoughby’s Netflix show Celebrity Bear Hunt reportedly won’t be returning to screens for a second season.
The former This Morning star, 44, broke into the Netflix presenting market last year by hosting a survival show which plunged a group of famous faces into the jungles of Costa Rica where they are chased by famed survivalist Bear Grylls.
The show featured the likes of Spice Girls icon Mel B, retired tennis player Boris Becker, TV presenter Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, and Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas.
Although the show comfortably topped the UK Netflix charts – and hung about in the top 10 for multiple weeks – it didn’t quite make the same splash globally, with insiders claiming at the time that execs didn’t believe it had been worth the ‘huge financial cost’, per The Mirror.
Now, four months after its premiere, it looks as though its fate has been sealed with sources telling MailOnline it will not be returning.
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The insider said: ‘Everyone was very proud of the show but when it came to it, it was just so expensive to make.
The expensive Costa Rica-based show performed well in the UK but not globally (Picture: Tom Dymond/Netflix)‘You had to have a whole set in Costa Rica, loads of staff and loads of celebrities. The overheads were eyewatering,’ adding that cheaper locations were explored but ultimately nothing was found.
It comes just two weeks after Grylls shared his hopes of a renewal with an optimistic update.
‘God willing, we’re just sort of figuring that out at the moment,’ he told Dermot O’Leary on Radio 2.
The first season, dubbed ‘I’m A Celebrity on steroids’ spanned 12 episodes and was won by Big Zuu where he was rewarded a rope worn by Grylls himself and which he has hung up in his home like a ‘weird little mantlepiece’ as he told Metro.
Although it seems as though it is the end of the road for the reality show, it left a lasting mark on its cast, as The Saturdays’ Una Healey explained.
The show was ultimately won by Big Zuu (Picture: Tom Dymond/Netflix) It remains to be seen what the TV presenter does next (Picture: Kieron McCarron/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)‘[Grylls] actually prepared us for the outside world afterwards, to get back to reality, which I did experience a mild form of PTSD. And he said that can happen,’ she told The Sun at the time.
The pop star added: ‘It’s very natural because you’re coming back into your natural environment. But you’ve adapted to this whole new way of life.
‘So he prepared me for that and I had it. I had a few aftershocks and nightmares and stuff.’
As for Willoughby, it is unclear what her next career move is after her final ITV show, Dancing On Ice, announced it was coming to an end after 19 years.
She also quit her co-hosting gig with Stephen Mulhern for the reboot of You Bet! after one season.
Celebrity Bear Hunt is available to stream on Netflix.
Metro has reached out to Netflix for comment.
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