Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard have said they are “so excited” as they make their debut on This Morning.
The pair thanked viewers for their well wishes, with Shephard saying they were “thrilled” to be taking over the show.
After a long search by ITV, the stars have replaced Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, who quit last year.
Schofield initially left amid reports of a rift with Willoughby. A week later, he admitted lying about an affair with a younger colleague.
Since then, the show has been presented by a number of guest presenters – including Deeley and Shephard, who were finally unveiled as permanent hosts last month.
Deeley said that the show had been a “huge part” of her and Shephard’s lives for “so long”.
“So to be actually standing here with you, it’s good,” she added.
For their first episode, they received good luck messages from Ant and Dec and football pundit Chris Kamara.
Ant and Dec worked with Deeley on SM:TV, and joked that Deeley was a party girl.
“She might be all sweetness and light, but that girl can party, don’t think she can’t,” Ant said.
Dec added: “Keep the lock on the drinks cabinet!”
Deeley responded by saying: “Listen, my motto in life [is] work hard, play hard.”
Former footballer Kamara, with whom Shephard worked on the ITV game show Ninja Warrior UK, also had a warning for Deeley about her new co-star.
“He’s like a bear with a sore head when West Ham get beat and the rest of the time he is just miserable.”
“Only kidding,” he added. “Let me tell you, Cat, he was one of the best things to happen to me and I’m sure you will see that, and vice versa, of course.”
The pair’s first episode continued with a discussion of the Mother’s Day photo of the Princess of Wales and her children, which has been withdrawn by multiple photo agencies over concerns it was “manipulated”.
Guest Gyles Brandreth made a blunder during the conversation, when he announced that ITV had commissioned a series about Catherine, called The Lost Princess, with Sheridan Smith playing the lead role.
The information actually originated on a social media parody account, where Smith is announced as the leading lady in any TV dramatisation of a news event.
Regardless of the slip-up, the panel returned to the topic an hour later, after Catherine apologised “for any confusion” the edited photo had caused, in a statement posted on Kensington Palace’s social media.
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The show also included its typical features, with a cooking segment focused on air fryers, and viewers calling in for dating advice from relationship expert Mel Schilling.
Deeley and Shephard also interviewed Jools Holland and Sir Rod Stewart, whose joint album Swing Fever recently reached number one.
At the end of the interview, the musical duo applauded the new presenters, with Sir Rod wishing them luck and calling them “the best”.
Holland joked that Shephard and Deeley had managed to survive the interview without getting “cancelled”.
Alison Hammond ‘absolutely not’ in the running
Deeley rose to fame on the kids shows SM:TV and CD:UK, and subsequently became a big star in the US, winning an Emmy for the primetime talent show So You Think You Can Dance.
Shephard started his career on The Bigger Breakfast and T4; and was one of the main presenters on Good Morning Britain until he left for This Morning.
The duo will host the magazine show from Monday to Thursday, while Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary will continue to present the Friday edition.
Hammond had previously been tipped to take over the main show, with tabloid press reporting she had been offered a “huge pay rise” to increase her workload.
However, she played down the speculation over the weekend, telling The Sunday Times: “We’re the Friday guys! We love being Friday guys!’
Asked whether there had been discussions about increasing her presence on the show, she said: “Absolutely not. How could I?
“I live in Birmingham and do Bake Off and For the Love of Dogs. I never wanted that job. Last year we did extra because we were going through issues, but Cat and Ben will save that show.”
Toxic working culture
Deeley and Shephard’s debut marks the end of a long period of upheaval at This Morning, which has been fronted by guest presenters since last year.
Schofield had been a fixture on the programme for two decades, but the news of his affair became a major scandal and sparked a crisis for the show.
In August, the House of Commons media committee said a “large number” of employees past and present had been in touch to make claims of wider “toxic working cultures, bullying, discrimination and harassment” behind the scenes.
Dr Ranj Singh, a former regular contributor, has also spoken out, saying the “culture at This Morning had become toxic”.
ITV’s chief executive has said she does “not recognise” claims of a toxic culture on the programme.
In September 2023, This Morning failed to win at the audience-voted National Television Awards for the first time in 13 years.
The show currently attracts about 800,000 viewers per day.
