EXCLUSIVE – Holly Willoughby in charge as ITV bosses decide not to replace Phillip Schofield: Star will present This Morning with a rotation of co-hosts when she returns from her summer break – as she prepares to sign a new deal to save show
This Morning will be centered around Holly Willoughby when she returns in September after ITV bosses decided not to make a big money hiring to replace Phillip Schofield.
The Daily Mail can reveal that the star will instead have rotating co-hosts when she fronts the under-threat show Monday to Thursday rather than chiefs poaching a bigger star from a rival show or channel as they attempt to take the programme, which was once the jewel in its crown, back to its glory days following recent scandal.
Insiders at This Morning say that they will mostly be Josie Gibson and Craig Doyle, though Holly, 42, will be joined sporadically by Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond who currently host on Fridays and holidays.
It means that Holly’s dream that she would be paired with Alison, 48, is over because she is too busy to commit to working four days on the daytime show, say insiders.
Holly, who is currently on a family holiday on the Algarve, is to sign a new contract ‘any day now’ which will be even more lucrative than the £700,000 deal that she is already on.
Plan: This Morning will be centered around Holly Willoughby when she returns in September after ITV bosses decided not to make a big money hiring to replace Phillip Schofield (Holly pictured in May)
Variety: Holly, 42, will instead have rotating co-hosts when she fronts the under-threat show Monday to Thursday rather than chiefs poaching a bigger star from a rival show (Holly pictured with Phillip Schofield in May before his This Morning departure)
Insiders at ITV say that this system will not only mean that she is ‘Queen Bee’ but that a fall out between two main anchors like hers with Phillip will be avoided.
An ITV source said; ‘The idea of finding the next Phil to sit next to Holly has been disregarded by This Morning’s bosses. It will be Holly along with whichever rotating presenter is selected to join her. It will essentially be Holly’s show.
‘Bosses hope that they can put all of the Schofield scandal behind them and start concentrating on the content of the show rather than the twosome presenting it. At least this way there won’t be any falling out.
‘Holly is so excited about the plan, she loves Josie, Craig, Alison and Dermot. It’s a happy ship and she made the decision not to quit but instead to return and keep things going while being at the helm. Holly is absolutely determined to head up the challenge to make the show a success again.’
Sources at ITV have compared the presenting set up to be similar to that of Good Morning Britain following Piers Morgan’s departure two years ago.
Susannah Reid is the main anchor and is joined by a rota of Richard Madeley, Ed Balls and Martin Lewis on Monday to Wednesday’s episodes and then the likes of Ben Shepherd, Kate Garraway and Ranvir Singh take over for the rest of the week.
The Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday that Holly will return to This Morning to save it after it was left under huge threat of the axe following Phillip’s admission that he had been having an affair with a much younger colleague – and then lied about it.
Following Phillip’s scandal two months ago, Holly has decided to take an extra long break off until autumn, according to The Sun.
Stars: Insiders at This Morning say the presenters will mostly be Josie Gibson and Craig Doyle (pictured last month)
Hosts: Holly will be joined sporadically by Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond who currently host on Fridays and holidays (pictured this month)
Co-stars Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond have stepped in to cover her, from Monday to Friday.
Holly, who works Monday to Thursday, typically works a five day working week on her last week before her summer break.
Holly and Phillip used to sign off the show and give a goodbye message to fans before their 6-week summer break.
However in a break from traditional, the star signed off with her usual farewell message to viewers ‘see you, bye’, without mentioning her upcoming holiday.
Phillip stepped down from ITV as he admitted to having an affair with a much younger male This Morning colleague in an ‘unwise but not illegal’ relationship.
In an Instagram post, shared earlier this month, bosses of Holly’s brand Wylde Moon wrote about the first supermoon of 2023 and how it can provide ‘clarity’ on ‘intense emotions’.
It read: ‘Today’s full ‘buck’ moon is the first supermoon of 2023. As the moon in Capricorn opposes the sun in Cancer, it encourages you to merge all thoughts and emotions.
‘This alignment suggests that intense emotions may provide clarity and unveil the necessary actions you need to move forward. Listen, learn, love.’
Scandal: Phillip has apologised to Holly, who presented This Morning with him for 14 years, for lying about his secret relationship with his colleague (centre) and for tainting her public image
Comeback: Holly and co-presenter Josie Gibson held hands on This Morning as Holly made her return to the show last month
Relief: Holly Willoughby appears emotional alongside co-presenter Josie Gibson and they share a hug
Brand executives added in a caption: ‘The July full Moon is known as the Buck Moon because it’s when male deer, also called bucks, are growing their antlers to the fullest and most majestic.
‘It’s a time when bucks shed their old antlers and sprout new ones, getting bigger and more impressive with each passing year.’
Since Phillip’s resignation, This Morning has been plagued with allegations of ‘toxicity’, including from the show’s former resident doctor Dr Ranj Singh, who raised concerns about ‘bullying and discrimination’ and afterwards felt like he was ‘managed out’ for whistleblowing.
Dr Ranj – who is now the resident doctor on the BBC’s Morning Live – said he thought ‘long and hard’ before weighing in on the scandal which engulfed ITV but decided to speak out ‘in light of recent events’.
He wrote in a length Instagram post: ‘I was on the show for 10 years and I genuinely loved and valued working there. However over time I grew increasingly worried about how things were behind-the-scenes and how people, including myself, were being treated.
‘I didn’t know the truth about what was going on with Philip [sic], but I do know the issues with TM go far beyond him. It takes more than one person to create a culture.’
The television medic confirmed that he had taken concerns about the behaviour of editors and senior producers to ITV and had then seen his screentime drop.
‘So I did what I thought was right and, as ITV confirmed last night, I raised my concerns with Emma Gormley – especially given that my job is to look after people’s wellbeing and I had been heavily involved in diversity, anti-bullying and mental health projects across the channel.
Speaking out: Phillip insisted he would be taking time out from television as he spoke out about the situation during an interview with the BBC last month
‘I then found myself being used less and less,’ the medic said online. He added that he had felt ‘managed out’ and slammed the culture at the show as ‘toxic’.
‘I even took my concerns directly to the top of ITV: the culture at This Morning has become toxic, no longer aligned with ITV values, and I felt like because I whistle-blew I was managed out.
‘But as history and experience have taught us, things like bullying and discrimination are very hard to prove, particularly in hindsight and when the “people in power” control the narrative. As we’ve seen, no review of investigation is foolproof.
‘Still, I was assured that certain things were going to be addressed and changes made.
‘I haven’t worked on the show since… and I am not the only one who has spoken up or experienced similar.’
It comes after the Mail On Sunday revealed a senior manager on Loose Women sent an email to ITV’s top bosses to raise ‘serious concerns’ about the welfare of the young man who had an affair with Phillip.
ITV chiefs told MPs last month that they were unaware of concerns about the production assistant, who worked with Phillip on This Morning during their relationship.
But The Mail on Sunday disclosed that sources at the channel believe bosses, including managing director for entertainment Kevin Lygo, knew of an email that outlined worries about the man’s wellbeing.
Controversy: In a bombshell statement to the Daily Mail in May, veteran TV presenter Phillip admitted that he and the man began a relationship that was more than a friendship
The email warned that ITV had a duty of care towards him as a vulnerable employee. Sources close to Mr Lygo say he has ‘no recollection’ of it. No formal investigation was launched.
There was no mention of this correspondence at a Commons select committee hearing which saw Mr Lygo and ITV’s chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall be questioned about the scandal last month.
In a bombshell statement to the Daily Mail in May, veteran TV presenter Phillip admitted that he and the man began a relationship that was more than a friendship. The ex-TV presenter described this as ‘unwise but not illegal’.
Phillip further confessed that he lied to his employer ITV, to his colleagues, his friends and his agents at the management firm YMU.
He also lied to The Mail on Sunday, the Daily Mail’s sister paper, which first exclusively described his relationship with the younger man earlier this month.
In his grovelling apology, Phillip said: ‘I am making this statement via the Daily Mail, to whom I have already apologised personally for misleading, through my lawyer who I also misled, about a story [sic] which they wanted to write about me a few days ago.
‘The first thing I want to say is: I am deeply sorry for having lied to them, and to many others about a relationship that I had with someone working on This Morning. I did have a consensual on-off relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.
‘Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than a just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over…
Support: Phillip with his wife Stephanie Lowe and daughters Molly and Ruby (pictured in November 2018)
‘I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife…
‘I am resigning from ITV with immediate effect, expressing my immense gratitude to them for all the amazing opportunities that they have given me.
‘I will reflect on my very bad judgement in both participating in the relationship and then lying about it.’
Phillip’s extraordinary statement concluded weeks of increasingly fevered speculation in both the TV industry and the wider country about the future of his career, following his sudden departure from the This Morning sofa earlier this month.
His exit from ITV apparently scotched plans for the ‘prime time’ show he was allegedly offered by the network as consolation for leaving This Morning after more than 20 years on the show.
In an interview with the BBC, Phillip said he believed his career was ‘over’ and he had ‘lost everything’ after admitting he had lied about his relationship with a younger man on This Morning.
‘I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart,’ he told the publication. ‘What am I going to do with my days? I see nothing ahead of me but blackness, sadness regret, remorse and guilt. I did something very wrong, and then I lied about it consistently.’
In the interview, Phillip, who was also dropped by his talent agency YMU after his admission to the Mail about the ‘unwise but not illegal relationship’, said he was ‘utterly broken and ashamed’.
Tough times: Phillip said telling his wife Stephanie Lowe about his affair ‘was the most difficult conversation I’ve ever had to have with her’
Phillip told the BBC that the young man, who worked as a runner for a short period on This Morning, was 20 when he first had any kind of sexual contact with him.
He told The Sun they had become friends but in 2017 – three years before he came out as gay and separated from wife Stephanie Lowe after 27 years – ‘something happened that just changed it’.
There was ‘a consensual moment’ in Phillip’s dressing room after a show and ‘it was mutual’.
He said he did not have a ‘love affair’ with the man and that ‘it was not a relationship, we were not boyfriends, we were mates’.
He said ‘it wasn’t feelings’ he was getting but it was ‘more like mates: excitement’. He added: ‘I was really struggling with my sexuality at that time in the build up to what happened.’ The pair only had ‘five or six romantic encounters’ over a period of around six months.
He said they met at Phillip’s apartment in south-east London only once after he phoned the young man to invite him over for a beer.
He also denied using ITV money to pay for taxis for the man, saying: ‘I don’t have an ITV account.’
Phillip said he had ‘no excuse’ for what happened, ‘no one did anything wrong apart from me’ and ‘I was unprofessional, one time, in a 41-year career’.
In another interview, Phillip said that his former This Morning co-presenter Holly – who was not aware of the affair – was ignoring his messages apologising and pleading for forgiveness.
During a chat with The Sun, he apologised to Holly for lying to her about his relationship, saying: ‘I’ve lost my best friend.’
He added: ‘I let her down. I let that entire show down. I let the viewers down. Holly did not know and she was one of the first texts that I sent, to say: “I am so, so sorry that I lied to you”.
‘She didn’t reply and I understand why she didn’t reply as well. So, yeah, if anyone is in any way linking Holly to this, that is absolutely, wholly untrue.’
When she returned to the show after Phillip’s departure, Holly gave a full statement about the events and said: ‘Hi there. Good morning. Josie [Gibson], thank you for being here. Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you OK? It feels very strange indeed sitting here without Phil.
‘And I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have – shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on, and full of questions.
Worries: Dr Ranj said he took his concerns to ‘the top’ of ITV as the scandal unfolded but that he felt he had been ‘managed out’
‘You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV, and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.
‘And it’s equally hard to see the toll that it’s taken on their own mental health. I think what unites us all now is a desire to heal for the health and wellbeing of everyone.
‘I hope that, as we start this new chapter and get back to a place of warmth and magic that this show holds for all of us, we can find strength in each other.
‘And, from my heart, can I just say thank you for all of your kind messages. And thank you for being here this morning. Myself, Josie [Gibson], Dermot [O’Leary], Alison [Hammond], Craig [Doyle], and every single person that works on this show will continue to work hard every single day to bring you this show that we love.’
Timeline of the Phillip Schofield scandal
September 2022 – Schofield and Willoughby are criticised for failing to queue for the Queen’s Lying in State. ITV insisted the pair were there to report from the venue.
April 2023 – Phillip is absent from This Morning for two weeks while his brother Timothy, 54, is tried at Exeter Crown Court for sexually abusing a teenage boy.
April 3 – Timothy is found guilty of ’emotionally blackmailing’ the teenager into performing sex acts and watching porn with him.
May 10 – Reports emerge Phillip and Holly are ‘barely speaking’, but a day later he issues a statement calling Holly ‘my rock’.
May 15 – The pair present a united front while presenting This Morning, but rumours of a feud continue. The pair are said to have fallen out due to Phillip’s failure to warn Holly of his brother’s trial.
May 20 – Schofield announces he is stepping down from This Morning with ‘immediate effect’.
May 22 – Stand-in presenters Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond pay tribute to their former colleague as ‘one of the best live television broadcasters this country has ever had’.
May 26 – Schofield releases a statement admitting he’d had an affair with a ‘much younger’ colleague but then lied about it.
May 27 – Holly blasts Phillip for lying to her.
May 28 – This Morning’s former resident doctor Dr Ranj Singh hits out at the show’s ‘toxic’ culture.
May 29 – Schofield releases a statement denying claims the show had a toxic culture, only for Eamonn Holmes to slam him as ‘delusional’ on Twitter.
Source: Read Full Article
