This Morning ought to be allowed to ‘die with dignity’, the editor who launched it 36 years ago said last night.
Dianne Nelmes also believes that if the show does survive the current turbulent waters, Holly Willoughby should lose her spot on the sofa because she is ‘a part of the shipwreck’.
Continuing scandals have seen co-host Phillip Schofield quit due to his off-air feud with Ms Willoughby before sensationally admitting to an ‘unwise’ romance with a junior colleague.
Yesterday a large framed picture of Schofield which hung in TV Centre in London where the show is filmed was being removed.
Sources indicated that This Morning editor Martin Frizell had initially decreed it would be ‘insensitive’ to take it down after Schofield quit on May 20.
This Morning has been running for 36 years after it was created by Dianne Nelmes (pictured)
Schofield pictured with the editor of This Morning, Martin Frizell
However following Friday’s revelations that he had befriended a teenage boy and that they had later become colleagues and lovers – and that he had lied about it – this was reversed.
Now Schofield is no longer part of the pantheon of current and former This Morning legends lining the corridors.
Staff assume that the many pictures of Schofield on a pin board in Ms Willoughby’s dressing room will also come down before she returns from her half-term holiday next Monday.
ITV is denying reports that the future of This Morning is under review amid speculation that the network is poised to axe it.
Ms Nelmes, who launched the show and is also the only woman to edit ITV’s World In Action, said, however, that she believed it was time to get rid of it.
This is not because of the personal allegations about Schofield but because the show had become ‘tired’ and was now ‘shipwrecked’ on scandal.
‘The situation is very sad,’ she added. ‘Whatever has gone on, Phillip has been a stalwart presenter of the show.
I don’t think that Holly can hold this show on her own, not even with Alison Hammond which is said to be the favoured outcome. I don’t think Holly can handle it. Phil will be missed.
Speculation is gathering over Schofield’s replacement, with Rylan Clark and Ben Shepard both reportedly in the running
I also think that they need to get Holly out because as long as she is on the show then it will be on the front pages and she will be the story, and that just allows the damage to continue.
‘If I was ITV, I would wait out the next few weeks until the summer break and then have a complete clear out of everyone and put the show in a pair of safe hands for a final year, with the aim of devising a great new show from September 2024.
‘Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford would be reassuring to the viewers. They need a safe pair of hands and someone who is not associated with the traumas.
‘The problem with the show for the past couple of years has been the content. It has been hugely damaging to it as a campaigning show that Phil and Holly were allowed to take on so many commercial deals.
‘You cannot do the serious and important stuff when Phil is selling cars and Holly is selling frocks for M&S. I have felt for years that the show is tired and needs to go with dignity. I feel very sad to see where it is now.’
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