EXCLUSIVE: Celebrity Bear Hunt arrived on Netflix earlier this month, but the series hasn’t proved to be the success bosses had hoped for.

Celebrity Bear Hunt

A netflix insider branded Celebrity Bear Hunt a “flop” (Image: Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Celebrity Bear Hunt hasn’t turned out to be the huge success Netflix originally hoped, an insider revealed.

The news series, hosted by Holly Willoughby, follows 12 celebrities as they are put through the ultimate test in a jungle-bound survival challenge. Dropped off in the Costa Rican jungle, the 12 stars become prey for adventurer and survival expert, Bear Grylls.

It’s been two weeks since Celebrity Bear Hunt dropped on the streaming service and it remains at number one on the top 10 TV programmes in the UK today.

However, when looking at Netflix as a global streaming service the success of the show has been less dominant, with one source branding it a “flop”.

The insider told The Express: “Netflix execs really believed that Celebrity Bear Hunt was going to be a huge success. Sadly, the reality is that despite the huge financial cost to the series it has proven to be a flop.”

Celebrity Bear Hunt

Celebrity Bear Hunt follows 12 stars as they are hunted by Bear Grylls (Image: PA)

It has now emerged that bosses have questioned whether Holly, 44, was the right person to sign up as the show’s presenter. Despite being well-known in the UK, the source pointed out that her popularity does not extend globally.

“Now fingers are being pointed and internally the blame is being laid at the decision to use Holly Willoughby as the host,” the insider explained. “She might be a household name in the UK, but outside of Great Britain nobody knows who she is.”

They added: “Holly is a great presenter but Americans don’t know her, neither do most Europeans and you can forget about the lucrative Latin market.”

Netflix executives had high hopes for Celebrity Bear Hunt after a record number of subscribers added the show to their ‘My List’ function.

‘My List’ is a personalised watchlist where users can add movies and TV shows they want to watch later. This allows users to keep track of content they’re interested in watching and helps Netflix gain a better understanding of someone’s preferences.

Holly Willoughby

Bosses are questioning whether Holly Willoughby was the right person to cast as presenter (Image: Netflix)

But despite adding it to their lists, Netflix found that these users never ended up watching the series.

The source said: “Initial excitement for the series being successful was based off the fact that record numbers of Netflix subscribers had added Celebrity Bear Hunt to the their ‘My List’ function.

“However, not many of those same users have since bothered to watch the show. Only now are some staffers at the network suggesting that even in Britain viewers are no longer in love with Holly following queue gate and her public fall out with former best friend Philip Schofield.”

Casting doubt over Holly’s future on the show, the insider added: “Netflix need an international name to host the show if they choose to do a second series, but there are rumours they may just let Bear Grylls host the show solo.”