Phillip Schofield Lands First TV Job Since ‘This Morning’ Exit With Channel 5 Castaway Show
Phillip Schofield has landed his first role since dramatically exiting This Morning last year over an inappropriate relationship with a colleague.
Phillip Schofield Cast Away for Channel 5 will see the former ITV host spend 10 days and nine nights on a remote, unpopulated island off the coast of Madagascar.
The three-part series will launch this Sunday, around 16 months after one of British TV’s biggest names left his role under a huge cloud.
Schofield will take on an intense physical and mental challenge. He will be left alone with only a handful of cameras to document his own experience. This solitary island existence presents an opportunity for him to confront the challenges of total isolation, the forces of nature and provides the time to battle within his own mind as he explores his own controversial story.
Schofield left This Morning after it was revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with a much younger colleague last year, amid concurrent strain in his relationship with long-time co-host Holly Willoughby. He was dropped by his agency YMU at the time and the saga led to difficult questions for ITV over its top-tier talent. The network eventually said it had not found evidence of a “toxic culture” on This Morning, but would publish a “talent charter” to help address future issues.
Phillip Schofield Cast Away is his first TV gig. It is produced by Burning Bright Productions, which has worked with the likes of Alexander Armstrong, Joanna Lumley and Ruby Wax.
Channel 5 Commissioning Editor Guy Davies said the show allows a chance for Schofield to “look back over the last explosive 18 months of his life, and explore what happened.”
“The audience will learn how he feels now about television and the future, as well as the past,” he added .”And it will be Phillip Schofield as we have never seen him before – unguarded, emotional and brutally honest.”