The BBC’s Watchdog will no longer air as its own series and will instead feature as a segment on The One Show, the broadcaster has announced.
The consumer rights programme, which has been a fixture on BBC One for 40 years and usually runs for two series a year, will appear throughout the year on the BBC’s flagship live nightly show.
Watchdog originally started as a weekly feature on BBC One’s news magazine programme Nationwide before it became a standalone series in 1985.
The programme, which has aired more than 1,000 episodes, will move to The One Show in the spring.
A BBC source said that “it’s expected to be a weekly fixture within The One Show not just twice a year so better for consumers to have year round presence to react to their issues.”
The move comes after the BBC announced it had axed Victoria Derbyshire’s daily current affairs BBC Two programme because of cuts.
Hosts Matt Allwright and Nikki Fox will continue to be the faces of Watchdog, in which they investigate and expose the companies, institutions and fraudsters who rip off members of the public.
Alison Kirkham, controller BBC Factual, said that the move means Watchdog “will achieve even greater prominence and success in raising awareness” of viewers’ rights.
Carla-Maria Lawson, head of daytime and early peak, said: “Watchdog has been tenaciously fighting for viewers rights since the strand started 40 years ago within Nationwide, so it’s fitting that in its anniversary year we are able to open up the potential for viewers to connect with the brand through The One Show.”
The One Show’s editor Rob Unsworth added: “Bringing the quality, investigative journalism of the much-loved and trusted Watchdog brand to viewers year-round is an exciting move and a great opportunity for The One Show; and means that more than ever the team can react on behalf of consumers whenever stories come up.”
As well as Derbyshire’s show, the BBC recently announced that there would be cuts to Newsnight, 5Live and other news output leading to around 450 job losses in a bid to “reduce duplication” and make savings.