Originally Posted by Dan R:
“It is contracted for next year, so pure wishful thinking in your part.”
Not necessarily. There's always a termination agreement in these contracts, especially for commercial broadcasters. If a company agrees to air 2 series of a sitcom that bombs terribly after the first series and is a drag on their ratings/commercial income then there's always an option for the broadcaster and/or production to end the contract early.
ITV will in no way be bound to air something it doesn't want to, even if it previously agreed to do so. There will be numerable ways that broadcasters can nix agreements to air something if circumstances dictate. Under performing in the ratings would almost definitely be in there as a 'get out' clause.
Hypothetically if the first series of a show gets 15m and the network renews it for 3 more series and series 2 the audience falls to 2m, do you really think they're bound to show the full 3-contracted series? Of course they're not.