BREAKING NEWS: Ben Shephard says ‘TV can be really tough’ as he speaks out on brutal sacking
This Morning presenter Ben Shephard opened up about a brutal setback in his career as he and Cat Deeley prepare to return to the ITV show following the summer break
Ben Shephard opened up about his brutal sacking (Image: ITV)
This Morning presenter Ben Shephard has opened up about being brutally sacked from a previous job. For the past two years, the 51-year-old has fronted the ITV show alongside Cat Deeley, following a decade on Good Morning Britain.
Other shows on his busy schedule include Tipping Point and his latest programme, The Summit.
However, such success did not come easily for Ben, who recalled a television executive’s brutal words after being sacked from The Bigger Breakfast in 1998.
Described as youth-targeted programming, the spin-off to The Big Breakfast aired on Channel 4 during school holidays between 1997 and 2000.
This Morning presenters Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley (Image: GETTY)
Ben began hosting the show in 1998 alongside Melanie Sykes and Dermot O’Leary, but was let go just as he was finding his feet.
Sharing what a television boss said to him, he told The Times: “An exec at Channel 4 basically turned around and said, ‘I don’t think you’re very good at this’.
“‘I don’t think you’ll ever be very good at this. I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go’. I was probably in my early twenties,” he added.
Despite the setback, he did not give up and went on to work on shows including the X Factor spin-off The Xtra Factor and Sky’s Goals on Sunday.
Ben has come a long way since the brutal sacking (Image: Getty)
Reflecting on how television has changed since he first started out, he added: “We grew up in an environment where decisions were made by people that had the power to make them and they didn’t have to explain them.
“[Television] can still be really, really tough. But I’d like to think it’s a more inclusive, collaborative environment than it was,” he added.
He went on to say that he hopes to remain on This Morning for many more years to come.
Ben and Cat will make a return to the show on Monday, 7 September, following a lengthy summer break.
During their time away, a host of different presenters have fronted the show, including Christine Lampard and Andi Peters.
Ben was told he ‘wasn’t very good’ at the job (Image: GETTY)
While hosting the programme together on Thursday, Andi was taken aback by a comment guest Miriam Margolyes made about his skin.
During an awkward exchange, she asked the presenter “what accent would be normal” for him before going on to question his ethnicity.
After suggesting he was “a mix”, she added: “I think you’re high yella. That’s what they call it in America when someone isn’t deeply black”, to which Andi said that he “didn’t even know there were shades”.
The Merriam-Webster US dictionary defines the term — sometimes spelt “high yaller” or “high yellow” — as dated and often offensive slang used to describe a black person with a light complexion.
