This Morning trio Alison Hammond, Josie Gibson and Dermot O’Leary are supporting Phillip Schofield as he launches a career comeback hosting a new Channel 5 series.
Schofield, 62, quit This Morning last year after he admitted lying about an affair with a man 34 years his junior who had worked on the daytime show.
At the time he said his TV career was finished but he is now attempting to resurrect himself on screen. In three-part series Cast Away he will spend 10 days on a remote, unpopulated island off the coast of Madagascar.
Channel 5 say Phillip will “confront the challenges of total isolation, the forces of nature and provide the time to battle within his own mind as he explores his own controversial story”.
And Alison, Dermot and Josie have all “liked” his posts promoting the show, which airs next week. One TV source said: “Phillip certainly didn’t make many friends with his behaviour on This Morning in the final years but there is a degree of sympathy amongst some people for the state he finds himself in now.
“Celebs are not going to be lining up publicly to speak out for him but liking his messages is at least a more subtle way of wishing him luck on his new project. He will have been thrilled to see them like his messages.”
Shamed TV host Schofield quit This Morning 16 months ago after he admitted lying about an “unwise, but not illegal” affair with a junior male staff member on the ITV show.
His new show will air from Monday to Wednesday at 9pm. One of Schofield’s posts about the show has been liked over 70,000 times and a big audience is expected.
Channel 5 commissioning editor Guy Davies said: “This isn’t just a survival challenge, it’s a chance for Phillip 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. It will be Phillip as we have never seen him before – unguarded, emotional and brutally honest.”
Schofield said last year he had “lost everything” after admitting to the affair, and that the fallout had had a “catastrophic effect” on his mind.
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An external review found ITV tried to find out the truth about an alleged relationship between him and a runner on This Morning in 2019 but was “unable to uncover the relevant evidence” until the presenter’s own admission in May 2023.
Phillip Schofield: Cast Away begins at 9pm on Monday on Channel 5 and My5.
