Sports columnist Bill Simmons has suffered the cancellation of his weekly TV show, ‘Any Given Wednesday’, by HBO after only four months on air.

A magazine programme focussing on sports coverage but touching on wider pop culture, Simmons and HBO launched the show to much fanfare in late June, but viewing figures had not been as high as expected, with an average of just 200,000 tuning in live.

Bill SimmonsBill Simmons' HBO show 'Any Given Wednesday' has been axed

Although catch-up platforms boosted this figure to 2.4 million per episode on average, the pay-cable network announced on Friday (November 4th) that it would be pulling the plug on ‘Any Given Wednesday’. Its last episode will be broadcast on November 9th.

However, HBO is set to remain in business with 47 year old Simmons for the foreseeable future, having concluded a multi-platform deal in October 2015, and the network will also remain a minor investor in his Bill Simmons Media Group.

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“One of the many reasons I joined HBO was to see if we could create a show built around smart conversations for sports fans and pop culture junkies,” Simmons said in reaction to the disappointing cancellation.

“We loved making that show, but unfortunately it never resonated with audiences like we hoped. And that's on me. But I love being a part of HBO's family and look forward to innovating with them on other ambitious programming ideas over these next several years — both for the network and for digital.

“With that said, I want to thank the dedicated staff that worked so diligently with me behind the scenes to make this show every week — we hired so many great and talented people and I loved having them in my life. It's difficult for me to imagine not working with them anymore.”

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