‘FOUR more sleeps til the family gets bigger,’ Martin Frizell, the editor of This Morning, wrote on Instagram this week, alongside an image of ‘new girl’ Cat Deeley.
His pleasure was there for all to see, and is shared by his bosses and the entire workforce as a result of, lastly, after ten months of turmoil, ITV’s embattled daytime present – as soon as the jewel within the channel’s crown – a brand new chapter begins.
Cat will take her seat on the couch at 10am on Monday alongside morning tv stalwart, Ben Shephard.
It’s hoped her arrival will lastly name to a halt greater than a yr of drama on the morning present, which culminated final October with the sudden resignation of Holly Willoughby after 14 years, following an alleged plot to kidnap and homicide her.
Cat Deeley regarded stylish in a black trench coat as she arrived for a gathering at Fox Studios in New York on Friday
This Morning followers could also be involved to study that Cat and Ben Shephard, above, haven’t even been in the identical room collectively for years
ITV had been left blindsided by her choice, which couldn’t have come at a worst time. For, simply seven months earlier, co-host Phillip Schofield had stepped down amid his shock confession of an affair with a a lot younger member of This Morning’s manufacturing employees, whereas married to spouse Stephanie Lowe.
The present, in accordance with some, was in particular measures. Ratings had been in freefall and there have been even fears that it will not survive.
But, I can reveal, though the champagne is already within the fridge in preparation for Monday’s long-awaited ‘curtain up’, the subsequent few days are going to be something however calm.
For Cat, 48, doesn’t even land within the UK till this weekend because the schedule on US actuality tv present, So You Think You Can Dance, which she has hosted for the final 18 years, has been so tight.
The turnaround will likely be quick. Stylists have been readily available to rearrange her outfits and there have been conversations about small modifications to the programme together with her. There has, very unusually, not been time for promotion: there aren’t any billboard photographs or adverts, flagging Monday’s large occasion.
But, crucially, viewers hoping for a return to the nice old days and the on-screen chemistry of Holly and Phil will likely be involved to study Cat and Ben haven’t been in the identical room collectively for years, not to mention sat subsequent to at least one one other but on their new sparkly couch.
It’s been a yr of drama on This Morning, which culminated final October with the sudden resignation of Holly Willoughby, above, after 14 years
Holly with Phillip Schofield final yr earlier than the ITV daytime present was rocked by scandal
Holly and Phil, in fact, hosted ITV skate present Dancing On Ice collectively for 3 years earlier than they paired up on This Morning’s couch. Creating the proper match can take months – typically years. It is, everybody admits, one hell of a raffle.
One insider on the present tells me: ‘Cat couldn’t get again from the States till now. She, Ben and the This Morning workforce have been discussing the launch on Zoom.
‘It is literally unheard of for two people to host such a high-profile show without any screen tests, or even sitting next to one another.
‘These shows live and die by the chemistry between the presenters but the bosses are so sure that it will work, and they were so determined to get Cat, that they are beyond confident it will work.
‘She’s a professional, they jumped by means of hoops to get her, moved issues round and suppose that Ben is the proper protected pair of arms to sit down beside her.’
The star with a really youthful Ant and Dec on SMTV again in 2000
Cat trying very glam in her position as host of US hit present So You Think You Can Dance
Cat together with her husband and former former co-star Patrick Kielty, with whom she has two sons
It is plain that This Morning’s new duo are very, very completely different.
But each began out on ITV, with Cat alongside Ant and Dec on kids’s programme CD:UK whereas Ben minimize his enamel on breakfast present GMTV.
They then took very completely different paths. While Ben, 49, continued to be a relentless on ITV’s daytime schedule, launching Good Morning Britain alongside Susanna Reid ten years in the past, Cat jetted off to Hollywood in 2006 the place she turned considered one of America’s longest-serving tv presenters on SYTYCD after being taken over to the US by Mr Nasty, Nigel Lythgoe.
While Cat is used to rubbing shoulders with the A-list in Los Angeles, you’re most certainly to identify Ben doing his native Saturday morning Park Run close to his home in Richmond.
‘Ben and Cat actually, when you think about it, couldn’t be extra completely different,’ says one insider. ‘But that will be the charm. Cat has been off living this most glamorous life in LA, Ben has been living a quiet life in London.’
Cat, who married her former co-star Patrick Kielty with whom she has two young sons, has spent the final 18 years getting used to the trimmings of Hollywood.
A daily at A-list events, she has been pictured dressed to the nines at glamorous purple celebration occasions, alongside the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. She was pictured at considered one of Mulberry’s well-known pool events on the Chateau Marmont the place the most important, and hardest-partying names are sometimes noticed.
Ben, in the meantime, is credited by some as being probably the most boring man on the field – in a great way.
Married to his sweetheart Annie, whom he met whereas learning modern dance at Birmingham University, the pair stay in a shocking Victorian property overlooking Richmond Park in south-west London with their two kids.
As one ITV insider tells me: ‘Ben is too boring to cause trouble – he’s extra eager about an extended walk and feeding the geese within the native park than a celeb celebration, and in all his years on tv has actually by no means executed something remotely controversial.’
He was initially tapped up by his bosses at ITV to host the present alongside Holly. He was seen because the ‘perfect’ accomplice for her after her fall-out with Schofield they usually had been resulting from relaunch This Morning collectively in January – a plan that was scuppered by her sudden departure.
After Holly stop, chiefs did search for different male hosts and had been mentioned to have been enthralled by Rylan Clark – as was Cat, who hosted two try-out reveals final November.
She instructed buddies on the time that she needed to host the programme with him although Clark – considered one of tv’s most sought-after presenters – wasn’t so eager to decide to the position full time.
Yet when Ben Shephard was unveiled as Phillip Schofield’s substitute on the well-known couch – alongside fellow newcomer Cat Deeley – few had been shocked.
A stalwart of the channel for 25 years, nobody has a cross phrase to say about Ben. For a ratings-driven channel like ITV, that is one thing executives would usually take into account a turn-off.
But after being rocked by one of many greatest scandals of their historical past, which threatened to destroy the long-running journal present and even hit the company’s share value, a person described by one insider as ‘Mr Safe Pair of Hands’ is seen as the reply.
‘It’s fairly an achievement to have been within the sport that lengthy and have by no means as soon as rocked the boat in any approach, even away from work,’ says a supply.
‘But he’s precisely what ITV want proper now – he couldn’t be extra completely different from the final pair who noticed themselves as very showbiz and glitzy.’
In reality, probably the most note-worthy trivia about Ben is that he likes to gather classic and vintage mirrors, and his favorite e book is Clown, by Quentin Blake, which has no phrases.
He enjoys classical music and open-water swimming – even on Christmas Day when he has been identified to take to the water in Salcombe, Devon – his favorite vacation vacation spot.
Alongside taking part in golf and understanding in his home gymnasium, the dad of two can be a passionate home baker – usually sharing photographs of his creations on Instagram to an adoring mass of housewife followers.
Indeed, his most daring TV second – by which he eliminated his tie mid-broadcast whereas internet hosting ITV’s Good Morning Britain – was thought-about noteworthy sufficient to spark nationwide newspaper headlines.
And but, as one supply quipped: ‘It’s fairly humorous actually – he’s beautiful, respectable and clearly a really handsome man who takes care of himself – nevertheless it’s type of exhausting to think about anybody actually fancying him.
‘It feels as though most of the female viewers want to be his friend or join him for a cup of tea rather than fling their bras at him but that’s the enjoyment of Ben, he’s beautiful.’
He can be a daily charity fundraiser, usually operating marathons in assist of excellent causes with 15 below his belt already in assist of charities together with the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Haven House Hospice.
One present insider added: ‘Ben and Cat both started at ITV which those at the very top of the company love.
‘This is literally the perfect ending to the most torrid of times for Martin Frizell and This Morning. People have said that it’s Cat who has bought the cream however truly, it’s Martin. And he is aware of it.’
Read Katie Hind’s unique report from behind the scenes of This Morning and what makes this relaunch completely different to another
