Amanda Holden made her ‘This Morning’ debut on Monday, co-presenting with Phillip Schofield for the first time while regular host Holly Willoughby is on maternity leave.
The ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ judge admitted at the beginning of the show that she was feeling nervous, revealing: “I’ve got massive butterflies. I felt really wretchedly nervous yesterday and now I feel a little bit better.”
Amanda Holden and Phillip Schofield
Her first day on the daytime show was met with a generally positive reaction from viewers, with hoards of fans of the star praising Amanda for her presenting skills, as well as her look, on Twitter:
However, proving that you can’t please everybody, others among the ‘This Morning’ audience were less sold by Amanda’s presenting skills, and didn’t consider her a worthy replacement for Holly.
Meanwhile, other people noted that although Amanda was looking very youthful on the ‘This Morning’ sofa, it may have been because she’d had a little *ahem* help, which a few avid viewers suggested may have stopped her from looking sympathetic to the guests she was interviewing:
Amanda later seemed relieved to have reached the end of her first day of presenting live, joking, “Is it too early for a gin?”, which her supporters seemed very in favour of:
It was announced earlier this year that Amanda would be covering the first half of Holly’s maternity leave on ‘This Morning’, with Christine Bleakley taking over in the upcoming months, despite Christine's stint co-presenting the show earlier this year being panned by critics and viewers.
Similarly, TV chef Gino D’Acampo has taken over from Holly as a temporary team captain on ‘Celebrity Juice’.