[Jon]

Perhaps the biggest difference our version had was all the contestants were on the wings, staying together for days / weeks in a hotel (I remember Lucy being on for 50 games before she got her chance...and won a fiver!), building up a connection with each other

I seem to remember Lucy only hung on for 50 games worth because she didn't live too far away from where the show was filmed (was it Bristol?) - as it otherwise seemed unreasonable for somebody who lived in Edinburgh to camp out in Bristol for effectively what may have been all their annual leave entitlement, though I appreciate they were knocking the show out production wise at some ridiculous rate, something like 15 episodes a week at its peak, so most people probably didn't have to wait for games on end to get their turn.

There is a lot of let's say unrealistic speculation from The Sun that Stephen is reportedly trying to go after Phillip Schofield's job as host of Dancing on Ice. That would mean that Stephen would have to potentially do that job as well as doing his current run of shows like Catchphrase, In for a Penny, the promotional ads for The National Lottery and then doing some side work on Ant & Dec's SNT as well as doing the potential job of hosting Deal or No Deal on top of it.

All I can say is Good Lord. That level of work is nuts.

That kind of workload to try and undertake daily while all under one contract for ITV1 is going to be huge for him. You have to wonder if Stephen is going to have to give up presenting some of his other current shows on ITV1 to prevent him from getting burnout in the future.

His workload with ITV at the moment is insane. I personally could not even consider trying to carry out that level of work for one broadcaster alone.

I would think that something has got to give way here and it has to happen soon.

I believe most TV presenters are effectively self-employed (quite a few radio presenters are as well), so if they don't work, they don't get paid.  The pay is quite high compared to more regular jobs because it is more stressful, longer hours and generally knackering (it was either Ant or Dec who said hosting a 2.5hr live final for BGT was exhausting on its own on an episode of BGMT).

That’s not really the reason they get paid the amounts they do though. The big TV and radio stars are getting paid the big money because they have a unique asset in themselves that can bring in the audiences. If ITV were paying Ant & Dec minimum wage they wouldn’t be on ITV and ITV’s big shows wouldn’t bring in the audiences they do. Whilst I’m sure it can be hard work and have lots of negative effects I’m not sure it’s anymore stressful than a nurse working 9 hours days on a hospital ward for example.