The armchair critics of Gogglebox have been tasked with giving their verdict on Phillip Schofield’s latest foray into the world of TV, and they don’t sound best pleased.
Last year, the former This Morning presenter got dropped by his talent agency and said he wasn’t sure he’d ever work in TV again after it was revealed that he’d had an affair with a younger man while he was still married to his wife.
Schofield then announced he’d left This Morning after the revelation of a relationship with a younger male colleague which the presenter said was ‘unwise but not illegal’.
ITV said they’d investigated rumours of a relationship between Schofield and a This Morning employee, but the pair had ‘repeatedly denied’ it.
He’d not really been on TV since then, but Schofield recently returned to screens for the Channel 5 show Cast Away which basically had him spend 10 days on a deserted island with a camera.
Viewer reaction to the series hasn’t been glowing, with people calling it a ‘masterclass in impertinence’ and a ‘pity party’.
Others commented their displeasure at seeing Schofield strip naked and run into the sea, while at one point he said he felt he’d been ‘chucked under a bus’.
The reaction to Cast Away hasn’t been greatly positive (Channel 5)
He said: “I have been chucked under a bus and I could drive the same bus over so many people, but I am not that sort of person. I never have been.
“But if I sit down with a camera and the lights going, who knows what I will say…”
Schofield said he felt abandoned by some people in the TV industry and called their lack of support an ‘utter, utter betrayal’.
Some viewers reckoned he was getting in some digs at former co-presenter Holly Willoughby too.
Now, the Gogglebox cast have given their verdict on Cast Away, and there wasn’t much sympathy for Phillip Schofield’s self-imposed public penance.
The Gogglebox crew gave their verdict on the Channel 5 show (Channel 4)
Gogglebox stars Pete and Sophie, from Blackpool, didn’t think much of his claims that he’d been ‘chucked under a bus’, with Sophie saying ‘you created the bus and then put your foot down on it’ while Pete agreed that Schofield ‘threw yourself under the bus’.
Sophie then said she felt sorry for ‘his wife and daughters’.
While over in Manchester, Julie Malone wondered ‘is it all woe is me, what’s it for’, while Jenny from Hull said he was ‘bearing a bit of malice’.
There was a more sympathetic reaction to Schofield when he was discussing his lower moments, as Lee said ‘it must have been really dark for him’.
Featured Image Credit: Channel 5/Channel 4