Exclusive: Most things James Corden touches turn to gold these days, but a new comedy entertainment show from his company Fulwell 73 may be a rare exception to the rule.

Pants On Fire, an extreme bluffing format hosted by The Circle presenter Emma Willis, has been quietly rested by Channel 4’s youth station E4 two-thirds of the way through its first nine-part run.

A Channel 4 insider said it always intended to pause the show part-way through its series and stressed that the final three episodes will be broadcast in early 2020. But another well-placed source told Deadline that a mid-season break was never part of the original plan.

Pants On Fire‘s first six episodes seriously underperformed slot average, with some installments down 100,000 viewers or more on what a show would usually achieve on E4 at 9Pm on a Thursday.

It vanished from the schedule after its November 14 episode and the...