Bullseye to return as Luke Littler spearheads darts resurgence?

ITV is reportedly set to reboot 80s darts gameshow favourite Bullseye as darts fever sweeps the nation following Cheshire teenager Luke Littler’s dramatic run to the PDC World Championship final last week.

Over 4.8m tuned in to watch Littler’s eventual defeat in the final to world number one Luke Humphries last week, which Sky Sports MD Jonathan Licht confirmed made the match the most-watched non-football event in Sky Sports’ history.

ITV is now set to capitalise on the sport’s newfound popularity with a return for the Bullseye, which ran from 1981-1995 in its original format with much-loved host Jim Bowen at the helm.

Quoting anonymous ITV sources at the weekend, The Sun claimed that the broadcaster had identified Bolton comic Paddy McGuinness as the man to replace to replace Bowen, staying faithful to the North West roots of the show laid down by Cheshire-born comedian Bowen, who was raised in Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire after being adopted as a baby. Bowen died in 2018 following a series of strokes.

The source told the paper: “ITV is already in discussions to bring back Bullseye after this year’s final drew in the event’s highest viewership in history. It’s early days, but ITV think it could be hugely successful.

“They think Paddy, with his Lancashire roots like Jim, would be the perfect person to host.”

The show saw three teams of two – one darts player and one trivia buff – face off to win cash and prizes. It is fondly remembered by fans for Bowen’s catchphrases such as “super, smashing, great,”
as well as for its incongruous habit of giving speedboats as a top prize to contestants from notorious sailing hotspots such as Wakefield and Burnley.

The show was previously revived by Challenge TV in 2006 with another Bolton comic, Dave Spikey, acting as host but it failed to capture the imagination of audiences in the same way as its predecessor and was axed after two series. That, of course, was before teen sensation Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler entered the public consciousness, making darts the nation’s second favourite sport according to a perhaps slightly over enthusiastic, if not entirely without foundation, report on Sky Sports News following last week’s final.