Richard Madeley wouldn't touch The Nightly Show "with a bargepole"
The former This Morning and Richard & Judy presenter would take the job on one condition, though...
He's one of the nation's longest serving TV presenters but chances are you'll never see Richard Madeley taking over ITV's The Nightly Show.
The former This Morning presenter and Richard & Judy star, appearing at the BFI & Radio Times Television Festival with Susie Dent, told us he wouldn't touch the series "with a bargepole" because he doesn't think the format works.
“It’s got nothing to do with the presenters – they’re getting it in the neck,” Madeley explained while discussing the show's ratings struggles as it temporarily occupies the ITV News at Ten's slot. “You could get Letterman to come in and do it and it wouldn’t work because the format is wrong.”
However, there is one thing that could tempt him to take the host's chair for five nights.
“I’d do it for a week for nothing if they spent the money on a room full of script writers," Madeley said, "because the shows that it’s meant to ape, like the Letterman Show, Jay Leno and the Late Late Show in America, they exist on roomfuls of writers. There are about twenty to thirty writers working every day on those shows. I don’t think this one’s got any. That’s what it’s about, it’s about the writers."
Over to you ITV. Perhaps for that rumoured second run?
