The reboot of The X-Files ‘almost broke’ Channel 5, the broadcaster’s chief content officer has revealed.
Ben Frow was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival when he slated the revival series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as agents Mulder and Scully.
Frow was asked to reveal his favourite TV shows of the last 50 years, naming the hugely influential sci-fi series which first aired from 1993 to 2002.
It was revived in 2016, with additional episodes airing in 2018, and the first episode at the time drew in the biggest audience in Channel 5’s history for a drama.
Over 5million TV viewers tuned in live or caught up online the week after it was broadcast.
It was the biggest show launch since Celebrity Big Brother hit Channel 5 screens in 2011.
But Frow told the crowd at Edinburgh TV Festival The X-Files was a ‘rubbish mega series’.
‘We put a lot of money into that – it almost broke us.’
The conversation was unusually honest, with Frow admitting the first six months of 2025 had been ‘grim’ for Channel 5. He also called two of its most highly-anticipated series, reboots of Challenge Anneka and Faking It, ‘disasters’.
‘I was stunned Faking it was such a disaster,’ he said. ‘It was so brilliantly made.’
The noughties life-swapping show was rebooted this year. Every episode of Faking It saw a plucky volunteer dropped into a foreign world, with just four weeks to get to grips with a new skill and convince a panel of experts they’re the genuine article.
Frow explained: ‘I think in the New World Order you don’t have to watch a show to get what the show is so we kind of encourage people not to watch the programme, but I was very surprised.
‘I also wonder if Faking It as a title since fake news came – you know, it was 20 years ago.’
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Challenge Anneka was another flop for Channel 5, but in hindsight Frow said he knew it was doomed before it even made it to air.
Originally airing on BBC from 1989 to 1995, the show followed Anneka Rice being given a task without any prior knowledge, with a tight deadline to complete it. usually in aid for a charitable cause.
But Challenge Anneka’s second lease of life was quickly cut off and its final episode never even aired. It was ditched from Channel 5’s weekend schedule after just two episodes.
‘We realised about two weeks before we put it out, “Hang on a minute. This is just a big makeover show.” We’ve had big home renovation shows since then and the world has changed so much that what Annika was doing was really ambitious 20, 30 years ago,’ Frow said.
The X-Files and Faking It are available to stream on Channel 5.
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