During its ATV days the chairman of the station, Lew Grade, was said to have taken a personal dislike to the show but was persuaded to let it continue, even arguing in its defence to criticism from the IBA. It was believed that the new management at Central frowned upon the anarchy of "Tiswas" (and the common popularity of another production, the soap opera "Crossroads") and in a desire to make the station more upmarket than its previous incarnation took the evidence of declining audiences for the new format as justification to axe "Tiswas" after series 8.