[Brekkie]

The set design for 12 at 12 looks like it should be a really fun game, but it really isn’t.

It offers the least exciting gamble in TV which, seems to be a no brainer considering the risk vs reward and they already have 6 grand safe and the few times I’ve seen it hardly anyone goes for it.

It would make more sense if they won a guaranteed £1,000 for getting through and they can open as many doors as they like but each time they’re gambling on not hitting a booby trap which would cost them the additional money up to 12k. I’m sure it’s similar to many other things such as Strike It Lucky, but it would make better television. It’s very anticlimactic, it’s like starting Millionaire with the question for one for a Million then 14 more for 5 grand a time.

Agree - I'm sure on it's first outing it was more like that - something like pick 6 boxes with them structured to guarantee a minimum amount in cash was found - but when it returned they had the £6k safety net.

So the suspicion there was more to come in the Sunday papers today ultimately wasn’t correct, so what was Schofield actually sacked for? The speculation alone?

I see it’s now Holly in the firing line - the front page of the Mail, for example, suggesting Holly gave ITV an ultimatum and was ready to quit if Phil didn’t. Now we have no idea whether it’s even true, but Holly declining to do anything supportive for Phil and now appearing to have elbowed him out is not a great look. Despite having his very vocal critics, Phil was hugely popular and helped build a solid and very profitable audience for a long time.

If Team Holly can’t plug these negative stories, is she now going to have to quit? It’s not exactly a high bar ITV have set here.

I do think unlike other programs that have relied on temporary replacements, they need to get a permanent co-host in as soon as possible. With Piers and GMB, for example, Piers only
did 3 days a week, already took extended breaks with a large team of fill ins to cover, and Ben Shephard was able to naturally fill the gap for the initial few weeks. Piers and Susanna’s chemistry was also built on them bickering and disliking one another.

With This Morning, Phil and Holly are (well, were) the show. The whole thing was built around their friendship and how long Phil had been there, so the longer Holly is sat with a different randomer each week, it’s a further reminder of the whole affair and only fuels the tabloid speculation further.

The press got Phil. Now they'll be targeting Holly.

Although I agree they should get a permanent replacement ASAP actually disagree the show is as Holly and Phil reliant as it once was thanks to their ever increasing holidays and then illnesses and other projects over the last couple of years meaning further absences, so over the year they probably only do around half the episodes.

If his contract was up in a few months, I wonder if by agreeing to go early he was able to get a bit of a pay off, rather than waiting to not have it renewed and receiving nothing.

No doubt he is on gardening leave, and depending on the official reasoning for his departure he may be entitled to a redundancy pay off too. The speed of the announcement suggests all that has been sorted fairly amicably.

I think rumours of a superinjunction or NDA due to expire shortly are nonsense.  As far as I know, they don't have expiry dates as these would ultimately render them pointless. 

A basic rule of PR is if bad news is going to come out anyway, you might as well take control of it and put out your side of the story first to the least unfavourable outlet.

You can often tell when a super injunction is in place as newspapers skirt around them by running articles made up entirely of old quotes.

Whatever happening behind the scenes things must have been very fractious that they could not agree on a joint statement from ITV, Phil and Holly to at least give the impression of a united front.

I am trying to avoid commenting on the specifics of the whole thing but given how hot broadcasters seem to be nowadays on investigating any hint of misconduct it's worth remembering this story has been around over 3 years so likely have been investigated by HR and not resulted in any significant action. Similarly any connection to his brothers case will have been investigated by police too.

His dismissal now is cleary more about PR than HR.