BBC axes Stranded on Honeymoon Island

The BBC has axed its latest entertainment format Stranded on Honeymoon Island following a muted ratings performance.

Work on series two had begun but has been halted, with staff informed recently the show would not be continuing.

Produced by Married At First Sight UK and Love is Blind UK indie CPL Productions, the 12-part dating show was hosted by My Mum, Your Dad presenter Davina McCall and adapted from Seven.One Studios sibling Snowman Productions’ format – originally conceived for Belgium’s VTM2.

The show follows couples who are matched by experts and marooned together on a desert island with limited resources, to put their relationships to the test.

A BBC spokesperson said: “Stranded on Honeymoon Island was a compelling reality dating format and whilst there are no current plans for a further series, we are grateful to Davina McCall for being our magnificent matchmaking host, the Honeymooners for taking part and to CPL for bringing the series to screen.”

The reality dating format’s cancellation follows in the footsteps of fellow castaway ents title, Survivor, which was canned after a one-series reboot in 2023.

BBC1’s series opened at 9pm on a Wednesday in September with an overnight audience of 850,000 (8.9%), less than a third of the 2.6m (20.5%) slot average. It climbed to 1.2m (10.5%) viewers in seven days, around half the 2.5m (17.2%) who watched the launch of Remarkable’s Survivor reboot overnight on a Saturday in October 2023.

It was also the 2.8m (24.2%) who tuned into Twofour’s adaptation of fellow European import, Destination X, on a Wednesday in July this year.

Stranded on Honeymoon Island struggled to build a consolidated audience after 28 days, with the entire series averaging 823,000 (6.5%) against a benchmark of 3.3m (22.5%), according to Barb data from overnights.tv.

Seven.One Studios International distributes the title, which has also been adapted by Denmark’s Snowman in Germany, Portugal, The Netherlands and Czech Republic and by Endemol Shine Australia for Australia’s Seven Network.