According to reports, Phillip Schofield‘s future on This Morning might be up for grabs.
On Monday, April 24, the TV host will be reunited with his presenting partner Holly Willoughby, 42, who was forced to skip the show momentarily due to shingles.
Previously, Phillip, 61, took a break from the ITV programme as part of his pre-planned leave while his brother Timothy Schofield was on trial and finally found guilty in a sex assault case.
While Phillip and Holly have been presenting This Morning together for numerous years, it has been reported that a hosting team shake-up is being discussed behind the scenes.
The Mail on Sunday reports that a’reshuffle’ of the presenters is being explored, with ITV insiders suggesting that the’main issue’ is Phillip.
A source said of the reaction from fans on social media to Phillip and Alison Hammond, who co-hosts the Friday version of the show with Dermot O’Leary: ‘It’s a case of both things clashing. Fans claim to be over Phil and in love with Alison.’
However, colleagues in top positions at This Morning are claimed to be fiercely devoted to him, notably editor Martin Frizell, who is said to have ‘taken numerous bullets’ for Phillip in recent years.
In September of last year, a petition on Change.org was established calling for both Phillip and Holly to be fired from This Morning, and it received over 80,000 signatures.
The petition was started when the presenters went to view the Queen laying in state in Westminster Hall, where they were accused of line jumping.
They did, however, highlight in a pre-recorded statement that they’respected’ the guidelines that were put in place for the media at the time, which were backed by Dame Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of ITV.
Alison, 48, was just named the next presenter of The Great British Bake Off, replacing Matt Lucas.
‘I’m just incredibly excited, I’m gonna be meeting the bakers very soon and joining the Great British Bake Off,’ she stated in the video announcing her new job.
‘I’m so very excited! As you can see, all my colleagues are absolutely speechless… Yep, yep, just speechless. We’re so very happy and we can’t wait to get started.’
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV.
