Phillip Schofield has revealed plans for his return to TV a year on from his much-publicised This Morning exit.
The presenter fronted ITV’s flagship daytime show for more than 20 years, before abruptly stepping down in May 2023, following rumours about the deterioration of his friendship with his former co-presenter Holly Willoughby.
Less than a week later, Schofield confirmed he was resigning from ITV altogether, admitting that he’d lied to his bosses at the show about an extra-marital affair with an undisclosed younger colleague, which he described at the time as “unwise, but not illegal”.
Since then, he’s only appeared on TV once, in a sit-down interview with BBC News in June 2023 to discuss the scandal.
However, on Wednesday morning, Schofield confirmed he was planning a TV comeback in Channel 5’s extreme new reality show Cast Away.
Channel 5 began teasing the show earlier this week, explaining it would centre around one undisclosed celebrity who was “marooned on an uninhabited tropical island off the coast of Madagascar for 10 days” and would be “challenged with total isolation, the forces of nature, and the battle within their own mind”.
“One celebrity, on a desert island, totally alone, with one chance to finally tell his story,” a teaser clip said.
Schofield eventually revealed that he was the celebrity in question on Instagram, confirming he completed 10 days of filming over the summer.
“Now you know how I spent my summer!” the former Dancing On Ice wrote. “Alone for 10 days, no food, no water, no crew. My story of survival, both on a desert island and off it.”
“This is most definitely a first for me and the only thing I felt compelled to do,” he said in a statement. “It appealed to me on so many levels. I’ve recently had a lot of time to think about my life, what went right and what went wrong, but I’ve always had the safe arms of friends and family wrapped around me. This time it’s just me, no phone, no comforts, no crew and only lip balm as a luxury.”
Cast Away is set to air across three nights next week, starting on Sunday 29 September.
Channel 5 previously trialled the same format in a two-part show featuring comedian Ruby Wax last year.