The producers made a double mistake. They thought he was such a celebrity actually he was a famous cult actor from a show like Monty Python. a cult actor has little following outside of the fans of his show. In short Idle didn't bring in that many viewers (hey wasn't beauty and true superstar Brooke Shields famous enough anyway she sure was). But another reason he was a mistake is that he isn't that great on his own. Without some of his PYthon gang to write for him or star with him in a skit he isn't the greatest comic actor in history. It might have been better if a couple of his Python gang members coulda guest starred with him and wrote at least the segments of his portion of the script. All alone he's one hand clapping.