Richard Madeley has shared his thoughts on whether he’d be up for permanently replacing Piers Morgan as a lead co-host on Good Morning Britain.
Over the years, Richard has served as a relief presenter on several occasions when Piers has been absent from the show, including guest hosting with regular anchor Susanna Reid.
When Piers stepped down from GMB last month, the former This Morning star’s name was one that was suggested as a potential replacement, which he’s now spoken out about in an interview with Metro.
“If the phone went and [ITV] said, ‘Would you come in and talk?’ of course I would talk to them,” he said. “It would be bonkers not to.”
Richard then added: “But I very much like sitting in for people. I have all the fun and very little of the responsibility or flak.”
Asked how he’d deal with online abuse if he were to take a permanent job at GMB, Richard insisted: “I personally couldn’t give a fuck. Far too many younger presenters have been affected by Twitter and cowed by it.
“I remember when I started sitting in for Piers on Good Morning Britain, I’d have a look at Twitter after I’d done a programme and, yes, you get some nice comments but you also get horrendous abuse and, from time to time, death threats.
“Obviously some death threats have to be taken seriously but from my experience, 99.9% of them are just coming from sad losers who’ve got nothing better to do. I’ve not reported any to the police because that would mean I’d take them seriously. They’re to be treated with indifference.
“If anyone reads this and thinks, ‘Right, well, I’ll have a go,’ by all means do, because I won’t be reading it and even if I did, I wouldn’t give a tuppenny damn.”
Another name that has repeatedly been mentioned as a potential replacement for Piers is Robert Rinder, best known as the star of daytime show Judge Rinder.
He has said that he’d find the prospect of working with his close friend Susanna Reid “very interesting”, but added that he’s unsure how he’d deal with the early mornings or “the wave of Twitter hate”.
It doesn’t sound like there’ll be a replacement for Piers on GMB any time soon, though, with ITV boss Kevin Lygo saying recently: “Piers is a special thing. You can’t replace somebody like him. There is nobody like Piers, for good or bad.
“We have a roster of presenters, including Ben [Shephard], Susanna [Reid], Charlotte [Hawkins] and Kate [Garraway].
“They’re all stepping up and doing a few more days than they would have done.”
The morning after Piers’ exit, Susanna co-hosted GMB with Ranvir Singh, with Adil Ray currently occupying the divisive former presenter’s old seat.
Good Morning Britain airs every weekday from 6am on ITV.