News brief: ITV axes Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

UK broadcaster ITV is ending its long-running format Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, 15 years after it first launched.

ITV confirmed it was “not planning any further special episodes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire beyond the remaining programmes which are still to come on ITV”.

The news comes as Chris Tarrant, who has hosted the show since 1998, announced he was stepping down from the show. Sony-owned Millionaire is one of the best traveled and most successful formats in television history, having been remade in well over 100 territories.