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‘FOUR extra sleeps til the household will get greater,’ Martin Frizell, the editor of This Morning, wrote on Instagram this week, alongside an image of ‘new lady’ Cat Deeley.
His pleasure was there for all to see, and is shared by his bosses and the entire group 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 – begins a brand new chapter.
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 resolution, 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 youthful member of This Morning’s manufacturing employees, whereas married to spouse Stephanie Lowe.
The present, in accordance with some, was in particular measures. Scores had been in freefall and there have been even fears that it will not survive.
However, I can reveal, though the champagne is already within the fridge in preparation for Monday’s long-awaited ‘curtain up’, the following 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 Suppose You Can Dance, which she has hosted for the final 18 years, has been so tight.
The turnaround might 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 are not any billboard photographs or adverts, flagging Monday’s huge occasion.
However, crucially, viewers hoping for a return to the great previous days and the on-screen chemistry of Holly and Phil might be involved to study Cat and Ben haven’t been in the identical room collectively for years, not to mention sat subsequent to 1 one other but on their new sparkly couch.
It has 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 right match can take months – generally years. It’s, 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 group have been discussing the launch on Zoom.
‘It’s actually unparalleled for 2 individuals to host such a high-profile present with none display assessments, and even sitting subsequent to 1 one other.
‘These exhibits stay and die by the chemistry between the presenters however the bosses are so positive that it’s going to work, they usually had been so decided to get Cat, that they’re past assured it should work.
‘She’s a professional, they jumped via hoops to get her, moved issues round and assume that Ben is the right secure pair of fingers to take a seat beside her.’
The star with a really youthful Ant and Dec on SMTV again in 2000
Cat trying very glam in her function as host of US hit present So You Suppose You Can Dance
Cat together with her husband and former former co-star Patrick Kielty, with whom she has two sons
It’s simple that This Morning’s new duo are very, very completely different.
However each began out on ITV, with Cat alongside Ant and Dec on kids’s programme CD:UK whereas Ben lower his enamel on breakfast present GMTV.
They then took very completely different paths. Whereas 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 certainly one of America’s longest-serving tv presenters on SYTYCD after being taken over to the US by Mr Nasty, Nigel Lythgoe.
Whereas Cat is used to rubbing shoulders with the A-list in Los Angeles, you’re most probably to identify Ben doing his native Saturday morning Park Run close to his house in Richmond.
‘Ben and Cat really, when you consider it, couldn’t be extra completely different,’ says one insider. ‘However that would be the appeal. Cat has been off dwelling this most glamorous life in LA, Ben has been dwelling a quiet life in London.’
Cat, who married her former co-star Patrick Kielty with whom she has two younger sons, has spent the final 18 years getting used to the trimmings of Hollywood.
An everyday at A-list events, she has been pictured dressed to the nines at glamorous purple social gathering occasions, alongside the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. She was pictured at certainly 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 essentially the most boring man on the field – in a great way.
Married to his sweetheart Annie, whom he met whereas finding out modern dance at Birmingham College, the pair stay in a surprising Victorian property overlooking Richmond Park in south-west London with their two kids.
As one ITV insider tells me: ‘Ben is just too boring to trigger hassle – he’s extra all for a protracted stroll and feeding the geese within the native park than a celeb social gathering, and in all his years on tv has actually by no means achieved something remotely controversial.’
He was initially tapped up by his bosses at ITV to host the present alongside Holly. He was seen because the ‘excellent’ companion for her after her fall-out with Schofield they usually had been attributable to relaunch This Morning collectively in January – a plan that was scuppered by her sudden departure.
After Holly give up, chiefs did search for different male hosts and had been stated to have been enthralled by Rylan Clark – as was Cat, who hosted two try-out exhibits final November.
She instructed associates on the time that she needed to host the programme with him although Clark – certainly one of tv’s most sought-after presenters – wasn’t so eager to decide to the function full time.
But when Ben Shephard was unveiled as Phillip Schofield’s substitute on the well-known couch – alongside fellow newcomer Cat Deeley – few had been stunned.
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 think about a turn-off.
However after being rocked by one of many largest 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 Secure Pair of Arms’ 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 manner, even away from work,’ says a supply.
‘However 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.’
Actually, essentially the most note-worthy trivia about Ben is that he likes to gather classic and vintage mirrors, and his favorite guide 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 figuring out in his house health club, the dad of two can also be a passionate house baker – typically sharing photos of his creations on Instagram to an adoring mass of housewife followers.
Certainly, his most daring TV second – wherein 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 pretty, respectable and clearly a really handsome man who takes care of himself – nevertheless it’s type of arduous to think about anybody actually fancying him.
‘It feels as if a lot of the feminine viewers wish to be his pal or be part of him for a cup of tea reasonably than fling their bras at him however that’s the enjoyment of Ben, he’s pretty.’
He’s additionally an everyday charity fundraiser, typically working marathons in assist of excellent causes with 15 underneath his belt already in support of charities together with the Cystic Fibrosis Belief and Haven Home Hospice.
One present insider added: ‘Ben and Cat each began at ITV which these on the very prime of the corporate love.
‘That is actually the right ending to essentially the most torrid of instances for Martin Frizell and This Morning. Individuals have stated that it’s Cat who has received the cream however really, it’s Martin. And he is aware of it.’
