The main Mastermind series will continue, with Clive Myrie remaining as host, but the celebrity spin-off will end after the next series, which has already been filmed.

In a statement, the BBC said it was "incredibly proud of all three of these much-loved shows" and thanked the programmes' production teams.

"Unfortunately," it continued, "we have to make some really tough choices in light of our funding challenges, and these savings have been identified from the Entertainment genre."

Viewing figures for all three shows have fallen over recent years. Celebrity Mastermind has dropped from an average of 4m viewers in 2017, to 1.7m for its most recent series.

Blankety Blank, meanwhile, has gone down from 5.5m viewers in 2021 to 2.3m for the most recent series.

And Live at the Apollo has dropped from around 1.3m viewers in 2018 to around 660,000 on its most recent series. These figures include catch-up platforms such as iPlayer.

More cuts to come

The BBC said: "These difficult decisions form part of the BBC's previously announced first phase of its proposals to make £500m of savings over the next three years.