Two Channel 4 shows axed

‘Wife Swap’ and ‘How Clean Is Your House?’ will be axed in...

13:28 13 November 2009

Channel 4 is axing its popular reality show 'Wife Swap', bosses have announced.

'How Clean is Your House?' has also fallen victim to an ongoing shake-up of the channel which is said to be changing its image after admitting that its main attraction Big Brother was being axed.

Channel 4 head Julian Bellamy said the latest two to be scrapped had been pulled in massive audience figures but his focus was on "finding the next generation of groundbreaking shows".

'Wife Swap', with two women switching families each week, began in 2003 and also featured a popular celebrity spin-off.

2003 also saw the launch of 'How Clean Is Your House?Â’ in which cleaning experts Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie did away with grime in peoples' homes. Woodburn is one of this yearÂ’s IÂ’m a Celeb contestants.

Bellamy claimed that each show remained profitable despite ratings slumps and insisted: "It was a creative decision."

The annual programme budget for the channel, which will screen the final Big Brother next year, has fallen by £150million over the past three years, prompting a sharp refocus.