Saturday night TV is one of the biggest nights of the week. It’s where the stations put their big shows and every weekend millions of us settle down to watch the likes of Strictly, Saturday Night Takeaway and even the National Lottery.

It’s as big as it ever has been, but down the years we’ve also had to sit through some absolute dross. There are many shows that have been scheduled as the next big thing but then left us all disappointed, axed after a series and never to return again.

Then there are others that stuck around for a while, a little like a bad smell. But what are the Saturday night TV shows that have been and gone, and are now long forgotten?


Red or Black?

Red or Black?, a concept brought to ITV by Simon Cowell could have been good but they simply couldn’t quite get the formatting right. Built around the game of a 50/50 chance, it combined big prize money with a huge trend at the time - casino.

Cowell recognised that online gambling like World Cup, Cheltenham betting and of cu#ourse casino was really taking off, and with roulette one of the biggest parts of that, the red or black concept was born. Hosted by Ant and Dec it was a show that had all the ingredients to succeed, but it did the exact opposite.

The show lasted only two series and even Ant and Dec realised it was going to be a flop quite quickly. It’s been gone a decade now, and let’s face it, even the Geordie duo have probably forgotten about it.


Don’t Try This At Home

Don’t Try This At Home ran for four series in the late 90s and into the turn of the Millennium and it had some big names involved with it.

It was Davina McCall’s first prime time show, helping catapult her into the star she is today, while Kate Thornton was also a co-host alongside Darren Day. The show involved contestants doing daring challenges to win big money and in fact, it would have continued had Davina not been pregnant. The show was put on hold for a fifth series but it never returned.

The show was a good concept and almost paved the way for shows like Ninja Warrior that we see today.


Night Fever

Night Fever is a show that is gone and very much better left forgotten. In fact, we’d be amazed if anyone really remembers it. It was Channel 5’s effort at Saturday night tele and was on for a staggering five years and 135 episodes.

The show was fronted by Suggs, and followed a very similar format to Never Mind The Buzzcocks, with two teams of three and two team captains of Craig Charles and Philippa Forrester answering questions about music.

The show finished in 2002, with Suggs going back to music and doing what he does best, performing with Madness.


Splash!

More recently we had Splash!, a horror of a show that tried to capitalise on the popularity of Tom Daley. Now, we love Tom but we want to see him competing for Olympic Gold and not teaching celebrities how to jump into a swimming pool quite badly.

It launched in 2013 on ITV, following the success of London 2012 and was pretty much panned by anyone who watched it. Plenty of big names took what was an extraordinary leap of faith into the pool too, including Caprice, Omid Djalili, Paul Young and Eddie the Eagle, who actually won the show.

It lasted just two series and we’re very glad young Tom went back to doing what he does best, winning Gold at Tokyo just last year.


Hole in the Wall

“DO NOT BRING ON THE WALL!!”

That’s what we should have been, and all probably were shouting at the TV when this BBC show was broadcast on Saturday nights back in 2008. The show finished in 2009 after just two series as the programmers got the message, with viewers switching over as soon as those sparklie onesies arrived on screen.

The concept of the show was not something that should ever been given the green light, in all honesty, so we feel a bit sorry for Dale Winton, Darren Gough and Anton Du Beke who had to front it.