Phillip Schofield‘s swift return to TV on Channel 5 over the weekend has generated plenty headlines and the move has clearly dominated chatter at rival broadcasters.
Speaking at the Channel 4 annual results briefing today, programs boss Ian Katz criticized Paramount-owned Channel 5 for failing to appropriately challenge the ex-This Morning presenter, who resigned in disgrace earlier this year following an inappropriate relationship with a much younger runner.
Phillip Schofield Cast Away launched on Sunday to a healthy 1.4 million UK viewers and there are still two more eps to go. The show features the former morning show host taking on physical and mental challenges while dwelling on his own controversial story. During the first ep, Schofield criticized the way he had been treated by his former ITV stablemates without challenge, including former co-host Holly Willoughby, with whom he was very close before his departure. “When you throw someone under a bus, you’ve got to have a really bloody good reason to do it,” he says in the ep. Deadline hears that there was some discomfort amongst Channel 5 commissioners following the decision to greenlight Cast Away.
Responding to a question from Deadline today, Katz didn’t rule out having Schofield on the network in future but said “for me the key thing is that people like Phillip Schofield get appropriate challenge when they are on air,” contrasting the situation with disgraced former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s time on Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
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“Matt Hancock got a pretty good going over on SAS and I would like to see Schofield face a tad more challenge than he got on Channel 5,” Katz added, before joking that the only challenge Schofield faced was from “sunburn.” “He’s not top of my list of exciting new talent that we are courting to be the next face of [Channel] 4.”
Schofield left This Morning after it was revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with a much younger colleague last year, amid concurrent strain in his relationship with Willoughby. He was dropped by his agency YMU at the time and the saga led to difficult questions for ITV over its top-tier talent.
Katz made the comments as Channel 4 revealed former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Stormy Daniels, the former porn actress who has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Donald Trump, would appear on its U.S. election coverage next month.
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