What went wrong?
Johnny Vaughan, the former Big Breakfast presenter, joined the BBC in a contract worth £3 million over two years. It made him the corporation's highest-paid entertainer. In February 2003 an edition of Johnny Vaughan Tonight was seen by just 58,000 viewers.
Johnny Vaughan was then dropped from Strongbow adverts. Company insiders said Vaughan was no longer a big enough star to merit his £300,000-a-year pay cheque.
One source said: "He's not the same TV name as when we first signed him. Like any firm, you only pay big money for celebrities with high profiles."
Vaughan has only produced disappointments for the BBC. He wrote a series of thirty minute shows that were supposed to be comedies which failed to raise many laughs.
In 2002, he introduced a chat show three days a week on BBC Choice and BBC One. A second series started in September 2002, the first show producing lacklustre viewing figures of just 1.6 million. It looked like Vaughan would go the same way as Vanessa Feltz. She was also hired from another TV channel for a multi-million pound pay cheque and has since disappeared without trace after featuring in a number of dreary shows.
It was understood that Vaughan's contract with the BBC gave him a virtual free rein to write dramas, act in situation comedies and present awards ceremonies. The BBC wanted him to "sprinkle his talents" across both BBC One and BBC Two and also to play a leading role in the re-launch of BBC Choice, a dreary digital channel, which the BBC would rebrand as BBC Three.
It was also reported that Vaughan had signed a deal with a Hollywood production company to turn some of his scripts into movies. The first to be filmed was about a quest by a priest and a football hooligan to find a pair of football boots worn by Franz Beckenbauer in the 1970 World Cup final. However, Vaughan was unable to travel to America because of a drug conviction in 1987. He was arrested for cocaine possession and spent 25 months in prison. While in prison he learnt to use a computer and on his release he went to work producing corporate videos. His biggest break came in 1997 when he was signed by the producers of Big Breakfast. His madcap humour and on-air chemistry with his female fellow presenters, especially Denise Van Outen, helped to restore the viewing figures back to the show's glory days when it was introduced by Evans and Gaby Roslin.
It has also emerged that the BBC also attempted to lure comic Graham Norton in a deal worth £5 million. However, when a senior suit indicated that he would be expected to host a new series of Blankety Blank Norton realised he was better off staying at Channel 4.
In September 2003 it was announced that Vaughan would join London's Capital Radio to take over Chris Tarrant's breakfast spot. He also agreed to host an hour-long Saturday morning sports chatshow on BBC Radio 5 Live called Fighting Talk.
In February 2004, Johnny Vaughan found himself on BBC Three in the "graveyard" slot up against BBC One's EastEnders. Just 30,000 viewers watched the first show.
Insiders said BBC Three would not be renewing his contract when the show ended its run, effectively dooming the series from the start.
In December 2003 it was announced that Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen get a new show on BBC One. The pair - who first worked together on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast - would front a new primetime show called Saturday Night with Johnny and Denise from the summer of 2004. The programme would be "a mix of games, entertainment and celebrity guests" and was meant tpo be the BBC answer to ITV's ever-popular Saturday Night Takeaway, fronted by Ant & Dec.
The show was renamed Passport To Paradise. It began in June with 4.1 million viewers but this dropped after a month to 2.8 million. One show was beaten in the ratings by a 17-year-old repeat of Miss Marple on BBC Two. The Miss Marple repeat was, perhaps appropriately, called Nemesis.
In April 2004, Johnny Vaughan took over the morning show on a London radio station called Capital Radio. He inherited an audience of 1.37 million from Chris Tarrant. By the second qusrter of 2006 he had lost over a third of the audience which was down to only 852,000.