Outraged Blue Peter fans have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration over the confirmation that the children's TV show is to be taken off BBC One after 53 years.
Viewers have been tweeting their grievances over the decision to move the world's longest running TV show to a new home on CBBC - ending an era for generations of adults who grew up watching the programme.
A spokesperson for the broadcaster said: "Over the next couple of years we're going to fade out children's TV on terrestrial channels. Blue Peter will be moving to the CBBC channel."
The confirmation came in a report approving the BBC's cost-cutting plans and includes all children's programmes shown on BBC One and Two.
Reaction to the news was made clear via social networking site Twitter and hashtags such as #RIPBluePeter and #howcouldthey.
One Twitter user wrote: "OH MY GOD MY CHILDHOOD IS CRUMBLING! BBC confirms plan to ditch children's shows, including Blue Peter, from BBC1 and BBC2" and another "So Blue Peter has been axed, my childhood is officially over".
TV producer and presenter Emma Freud joked: "Have made a black arm band out of sticky backed plastic."
While Daily Telegraph blogger Dr Tim Stanley argued Blue Peter belongs on BBC One: "Should something like Blue Peter, which defined the childhoods of millions, be thus relegated?
"And what will take its place? Please not something as unenlightening as The One Show, or Jonathan Ross hosting a darts championship from Graham Norton's garden shed."
