AFTER more than 20 years at the helm, Phillip Schofield left This Morning forever in a suitably random but underwhelming manner this week.
With a limp Thursday lifestyle feature on this spring’s “lust list,” which included sparkling wine, tequila, pizza and underwater cameras but sounded more like a bad night out in Benidorm than the season’s definitive “must haves”.
Poor old Phil couldn’t have looked less engaged by the item.
Where once he would’ve slammed down a couple of tequilas with his “mate” Holly and probably continued the session for the rest of the day, there was nothing but boredom and excuses about “driving this afternoon” from both as their famous partnership died in front of our eyes.
Schofield had mentally left the show already, you suspected, and he was frantically trying to rebuild what remains of his career as he prayed for the closing credits to save him.
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Yesterday’s news that he’d quit seemed inevitable.
The question that still probably baffles a lot of viewers, though, is why?
For over the past few weeks, there has been endless speculation about the root cause of their feud, which has been variously attributed to: Professional jealousy, the queue-jumping fiasco before the Queen’s funeral, Holly’s split with the YMU agency, where Schofield is a shareholder, and the fallout from the arrest of his paedo brother — who was sent to prison for 12 years on Friday.
What’s been most noticeable about the whole sorry affair, though, is the number of former colleagues, including Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, who’ve seemed to take great pleasure from Phil and Holly’s discomfort.
It flies in the face, of course, of the “all-smiles” cuddly image of daytime television.
But, as so many people I know who’ve worked there will assure me, daytime can be a snakepit and the public face of presenters is often at total odds with their real person and the ego that lurks behind the PR mask.
The slight surprise for me, however, is that ITV has ultimately taken Holly Willoughby’s side.
Because they may have been a partnership but there’s only one of them who’s a truly brilliant, natural TV presenter and that’s Schofield, who was in charge of every item whether they were interviewing the Prime Minister or the man with the world’s largest dong, who were just as likely as each other to rock up on This Morning’s sofa for a grilling.
Perhaps unfairly, though, he’s the one who’ll now be scrabbling around to save his career.
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Personally speaking, I won’t actually miss him on This Morning, as the couple’s habit of getting the giggles and not sharing private jokes drove me to complete distraction, as did Schofield’s nasty habit of losing his temper with the production gallery, which is one of the biggest no-nos in television.
But even critics are only human and as the speculation reached fever pitch last week, I found it impossible not to have a sense of compassion for the man.
It was underpinned by the fact, let’s not forget, it was Phillip Schofield who hand-picked Holly Willoughby for the job of presenting This Morning, in 2009, a position which has brought her riches and success beyond her wildest dreams and talent.
Yet it all ended, on Thursday, with the most undignified pay-off imaginable: “Michael Ball will be stopping by to tell us why he’s revisiting one of the most iconic West End shows. Bye.”
Yeah, see ya. NEEEXT?