Plans for a third installment of Popstars in 2005 have been scrapped by ITV.

As previously reported, the network had reworked the show as Popstars: Boy Meets Girl, which would look to find a male-female duet.

Now the series, due to air in the spring, has been dropped over fears that viewers are beginning to tire of the format. Instead, ITV is focusing on just one music talent show in 2005: The X Factor.

A source told Broadcast: "The X Factor didn't do brilliantly and the feeling was that if a show with Simon Cowell and Sharon Osbourne doesn't do as well as hoped, then a show without them would do badly."

X Factor averaged 6.9 million viewers across its fifteen-week run; impressive, but still down on Pop Idol 2's 8.3 million average the year before.