As soon as Holly Willoughby announced last October that she was quitting This Morning, speculation about her replacement became as fervent as speculation about the next James Bond.
The only difference is that instead of hunting down despots who want to blow up the world, Holly’s replacement would be talking about air fryers for under fives, Brazilian butt lifts and how to find love late in life.
Three weeks ago it was revealed that Cat Deeley, best known for being Ant and Dec’s sidekick on Saturday morning children’s TV, had landed TV’s most prized daytime gig, co-hosting with Good Morning Britain’s Ben Shephard .
Despite a shaky start, Mrs Deeley was a “cool cat” on her first day with co-host Ben Shephard
‘We’re having fun, aren’t we?’ trilled Cat to co-presenter Ben Shephard during their first show as the new presenting team, following the departure of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield
Today was their first day on the job. And while both are old hands at live TV, things didn’t start well when Cat missed her cue and we caught the end of her private conversation with Ben.
‘. . . by this time next week,’ was what we heard before the 47-year-old Brummie realized she had gone live.
What is going to happen by this time next week? Will she have finally found a way to shut up newspaper reviewer Gyles Brandreth, who talked so much about the Princess of Wales ‘photogate’ disaster that the rest of the show ran seriously late?
Perhaps by this time next week Cat will have bought an airfryer after committing blasphemy on This Morning by admitting she doesn’t own one. Doesn’t she know that’s like Question Time host Fiona Bruce saying she doesn’t pay much attention to politics?
Susanna Reid (left, Ben’s former Good Morning Britain co-star) was one of the celebrities who wished the duo well ahead of their debut earlier today
The opening credits of This Morning welcomed Ben and Cat into the fold
Looking healthy in ‘Geri Halliwell white’, Cat told viewers she was ‘excited’ to be there and that ‘This Morning has been part of our lives for so long’.
Not exactly true in her case as she has lived and worked in America for 15 years, but let’s not be picky.
Cat and Ben’s first show started with an overly long and rather boring talk about the doctored royal photo, followed by a competition to win a holiday home.
‘We’re having fun, aren’t we?’ wheeled cat
Not yet, but that was because everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting for the much-trailed ‘my bum-lift nightmare’ segment.
Poor Bonnie-Louise Cooper popped out for a ‘tweak’ at lunchtime to improve her back and ended up in hospital with sepsis. Cat and Ben listened intently as she described having a pint of filler ‘put right in my bum’.
Strangely, none of them asked Bonnie-Louise why she didn’t just walk away when she showed that the place offering the lift was an unsanitary beauty salon, not a proper aesthetic clinic.
Ben and Cat listen intently to guest Bonnie-Louise Cooper (second right, next to This Morning’s Dr Zoe Williams), who had a Brazilian butt lift – but ended up in hospital with sepsis
But confrontation is not what This Morning does. It is friendly, cozy and non-threatening.
Throughout the two and a half hour show, Ben did most of the talking while Cat nodded, smiled and made lots of encouraging ‘uh huh’ noises.
It’s likely that after a long absence from British TV she just wanted to feel out and not go all guns blazing.
It wasn’t until the final segment—a chaotic Easter egg tasting with a bunch of kids—that we got a real sense of her humor and personality.
For the most part, she was friendly and professional. During touchy-feely segments, her sympathetic head tilt was on point, but she kept her emotions in check—never as glassy-eyed and on the verge of tears at any point as her predecessor was prone to.
There was no immediate sizzling on-screen chemistry with Ben, but that would hardly be a reasonable expectation on day one. It was a huge relief though that Cat and Ben weren’t trying to create a faux ‘tv hubby-wife’ vibe. We’ve all seen how bad it can end.
They got on just fine, but I doubt we’ll be seeing pictures of them holidaying together in Portugal anytime soon like we used to with Holly and her former co-host Phillip Schofield.
After so much anticipation, it has to be said that Miss Deeley was one cool cat who did an admirable job of steering the scandal-ridden This Morning ship back on course.