Phillip Schofield returned to TV with Channel 5’s Cast Away. (Image: Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited / Burning Bright Productions)
TV comeback has stirred up controversy, with Kerry Katona being particularly vocal about her views on the former host’s new programme.
The outspoken ex-Atomic Kitten star expressed her thoughts in her New! Magazine column this week, stating: ” is back on screen this week with his Channel 5 show Cast Away and I was quite surprised at his return to television.
“If I’m honest, I think it’s a really self-indulgent move to have him alone on a desert island, playing the pity card. He talks about living with absolutely nothing on this island, but then he goes back to his big house, wealth and home comforts. I think it’s really tone-deaf. Saying that, we’re obviously all watching it, aren’t we?”
Speculating on his future career moves, Kerry suggested that reality TV could be next for Phillip, adding: “I think Phil will do Celebrity Big Brother next and I’d love to go in with him.
“Big Brother, if you’re casting, please put us in I’d be brutally honest with him.”
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Phillip Schofield has not been on TV for more than a year. (Image: PA)
Cast Away features the presenter “surviving” solo on a desert island. Throughout the series, viewers can expect he has spent away from TV since leaving This Morning and disclosing an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a younger male runner on the programme, reports .
Despite speculation that Phillip’s latest venture could herald his permanent return to television, he has seemingly dismissed the notion.
During the show, Phillip reflects, saying: “You expect your life to follow a path? I honestly thought, you know. I’m going to die on live television, hopefully at 93. But then you know it. It’s gone. And it’s not the way you planned it to be. It’s not the life you expected.”
As the programme progresses, Phillip refers to his journey to a remote island as “the last challenge” and declares: “Look I love telly. I’ve got telly in my bones but I won’t sit on a sofa again.
“I’m not going to do that again. There are people I won’t work with again. I’ve been hurt so badly by that sort of telly, that you get to a point where you think ‘I don’t want to do it anymore’.”
following her infamous This Morning appearance.
When she was interviewed by Phillip and Fern Britton in 2008, Kerry was seen slurring her words, which Phillip pointed out before telling her she “didn’t look right”.
Kerry explained that it had been an effect of the medication she was taking and said she felt she was treated unfairly on the programme.