Stay up to date with notifications from The IndependentNotifications can be managed in browser preferences.Jump to contentThank you for registeringPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inAllNewsSportCultureLifestyleChannel 5 has cancelled Vanessa Feltz’s daytime phone-in show (Getty)Channel 5 has axed Vanessa Feltz’s daytime phone-in show, with the presenter reportedly "blindsided" by the decision. It comes after months of prank callers, who were impersonating EastEnders characters, making it onto the live programme. Channel 5 announced in a statement that Vanessa would be "rested" from 17 July due to "afternoon scheduling changes", thanking “Vanessa and her team at ITN for 18 months of warm, witty, wise and searingly honest shows.”A source told the Daily Mail that Feltz was unexpectedly given the news in a meeting after her show came off-air this week. “She feels so blindsided but also let down by bosses,” the insider said. The programme’s 70-minute episodes attract an average of 50,000 viewers.In fullVanessa Feltz ‘blindsided’ as Channel 5 show is axed after being plagued by prank callsThank you for registeringPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in

The seasoned presenter, 64, was brought into a meeting this week and told the news by Channel 5 bosses, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Vanessa Feltz’s lunchtime show has been beset by callers pretending to be ‘EastEnders’ characters