It’s been a bumpy ride for the much-loved show but is it time for it to bow out with grace, writes Sarah-Louise Robertson
PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK, ITV
This Morning’s annus horribilis looks to be far from over. Holly Willoughby’s delayed departure – she should, in my opinion, have gone at the same time as Phillip Schofield – has driven the show further onto a cliff edge and it’s now only one push away from total disaster.
Teetering on the precipice like it is, you’d think its owners would be doing everything they can to save it from complete annihilation.
Instead they seem to be (as Woman went to press) helplessly flailing around for ideas, throwing more bizarre suggestions at it – Storm Huntley and Abbey Clancy as rumoured Holly replacements, anyone? – hoping something will stick and help rescue it.
As lovely as Storm and Abbey are, I don’t think that either are ready to take the seat on the This Morning sofa.
Since the show’s first unmitigated disaster – the ‘queue-gate’ row – to losing its Best Daytime Show crown at the 2023 National Television Awards – it has been one incident after another.
Unlike the monarchy where we know the next incumbent, there clearly has never been preparation made for a future without Holly and Phil at the helm.
Plan B, which we saw come into play after Schofield’s shock exit, seems to be a case of just making it up as they go along, with no clear vision to steer the ship into less choppy waters.
We witnessed the chaotic spectacle of sidekicks, giggly Josie Gibson and Craig Doyle, joining Holly on the sofa, and on Fridays, Alison Hammond teaming up with Dermot O’Leary.
Oh, for the safe pairs of warm hands – Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford – to come back and make it all better.
Before Holly suddenly ‘quit’ after it emerged she was the intended victim of a kidnap and murder plot, I think that she herself knew it was not working with the other four and come January, daytime telly favourite, Good Morning Britain presenter Ben Shephard, was to be parachuted in as her permanent co-host.
But surely it would have only been a sticking plaster as Holly’s image was still tarnished by the fallout surrounding Phil’s admission of an affair with a much younger male member of staff, allegations of an ITV cover-up and accusations of workplace toxicity.
Her public adoration was partly built on the natural warmth she once appeared to have shared with her former TV ‘husband’ of
