Alert – Phillip Schofield declares ‘you learn a lot about people’ in television and there are parts of his career he ‘really, really doesn’t miss’ in the first episode of Cast Away TV series – News Alerts

Phillip Schofield has declared that he ‘doesn’t miss’ parts of his TV career, after he dramatically departed his role on This Morning.

The 62-year-old TV presenter returned to screens on Monday, for the first time since he stepped down from the ITV show last May following an ‘unwise’ affair with a junior colleague.

Channel 5’s Cast Away sees the broadcaster stranded on an uninhabited island off Madagascar for 10 days with no food or water and without a production crew.

With only a camera to talk to, Phillip opened up about what life has been like since he was ousted from the daytime show.

He reflected: ‘I miss part of it, certainly. I miss most of it if I’m honest. But, there are parts that I really, really, really don’t miss.’

Phillip Schofield has declared that he ‘doesn’t miss’ parts of his TV career, after he dramatically departed his role on This Morning

The 62-year-old TV presenter returned to screens on Monday, for the first time since he stepped down from the ITV show last May following an ‘unwise’ affair with a junior colleague

Phillip paused before divulging: ‘You learn a lot about people… I don’t miss that.’

The outburst came after after he made a supposed dig at his former This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby.

During the show, Phillip discusses his bitter parting of ways with ITV and This Morning, which he hosted for 21 years.

Holly distanced herself from her former best friend and during a ‘highly strategised’ return to the This Morning sofa in June 2023, she told viewers she had been left ‘shaken, let down and worried.’

When she returned, she began by saying: ‘Hello, Firstly, are you okay? I hope so. It feels very strange sat here without Phil.’

Appearing to reference the now-famous speech on Cast Away, Phillip is seen having a BBQ with his family before heading off to the island.

He gives out food to his wife Stephanie and their daughters Molly, 31, and Ruby, 28, and laughs: ‘If you’re ok, then we’re ok, and I’m ok… are you ok?’

No mention of Holly is made in the clip, but fans were quick to clock the jibe, with one branding Phillip’s series an ‘ego trip’, before claiming he’s clearly ‘not as remorseful as he claims.’

During the show, Phillip discusses his bitter parting of ways with ITV and This Morning, which he hosted for 21 years

The outburst came after after he made a supposed dig at his former This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby

Meanwhile, a sneak peek clip from the third episode shows Phillip ranting about ‘three sh**s of showbiz’ on his new desert island documentary.

Schofield appears to blame his dramatic fall from grace on a trio of his former ITV colleagues, saying: ‘I think there are only three s**ts [of showbiz].’

He pointed out that one was a ‘coward who never stepped up in Queuegate,’ while another ‘is a coward because they never stepped up when I was being battered’.

In a clip obtained by The Sun, Schofield claims the third ‘is just brand-orientated’, adding: ‘Not what you expect, not what you think you’re going to get.’

While Schofield does not name any individuals, speculation has mounted that he could again be taking aim at Willoughby, who he doesn’t mention at all throughout the series.

Phillip stunned the nation when he revealed he would be making his TV comeback in the Channel 5 series.

Elsewhere in the first episode, Phillip told how he had ‘everything in place’ for a suicide attempt, but decided against it when his eldest daughter Molly persuaded him not to, in the wake of his exit from This Morning.

Phillip stunned the nation when he revealed he would be making his TV comeback in the Channel 5 series

Revealed: Phillip Schofield sent his daughter for meeting with ITV where they demanded an apology

He said: ‘In the last eighteen months, it got as dark as it is possible to get.

‘A year ago I got so, so close. I had everything in place, everything was set up and everything was ready and it was Molly that was looking after me.’

He explained: ‘Molly and Ruby both looking after me at the time, and Molly said: ‘Do you imagine what this would do to us if you actually managed to pull this off? Can you imagine what would happen and can you imagine what it would do to me if you did this on my watch?’

‘That was just enough, just enough to take a step back from the edge. I could have been hospitalised, I just raced to the family home and shut the gates and I was in there.’

He later paid tribute to his wife and daughters, saying: ‘Without them, I wouldn’t be here.’

Schofield’s return to television comes 16 months after he was forced to apologise to the Mail for lying about his affair with his former This Morning colleague.

He also lied to ITV and his former co-host Holly Willoughby about the romance and he hasn’t worked since.

But during the programme, he addressed the relationship, saying: ‘It’s like the biggest grenade going off in your life. You know you let people down, you know you’ve let yourself down.

‘It was an unwise and unprofessional thing to do. I will be forever sorry. I screwed up. I made a mistake, and I hurt the people around me.’

Phillip Schofield Cast Away: The critics’ verdicts are in

Daily Mail

Rating:

Roland White writes: ‘By far the most entertainment to be had from last night’s episode of Cast Away (C5) was imagining the meeting which persuaded Phillip Schofield that it was a good idea to take part.

‘This could really put you back in the public eye, Phillip love,’ they might have said. ‘Because what people really want to watch these days is a big celebrity feeling sorry for themselves for an hour’.

‘Only an hour? It felt a lot longer. This could be the biggest television misjudgment since Prince Andrew smiled across at Emily Maitlis and said: ‘That went well, didn’t it?’

Evening Standard

Rating:

Vicky Jessop writes: ‘There’s no attempt at balance here, not even from the producers. This is the Schofield Show, and we’re just along for the ride. Schofield himself expresses hardly any remorse, settling instead for a sort of barely-concealed resentment at his perceived ill-treatment at the hands of the press and public. And while it might make for fascinating television, it’s doubtful that this is going to hasten along any kind of return to the small screen.

‘Instead, this just reads as a desperate grab for public redemption. Queasy viewing, best avoided.’

The Guardian

Rating:

Stuart Heritage writes: ‘Whatever you think of the man, you do have to grudgingly admit that the parts where he carries out the actual premise of the show – on an island, sunburned to hell, trying to Go-Pro himself boiling limpets for sustenance – are pretty entertaining.

‘However (and this is a big however), the man absolutely cannot help himself. It’s one thing to fend for yourself in the middle of nowhere, quite another to do it without acting like the most bitter man ever to walk the Earth. And make no mistake, Schofield is an incredibly bitter man.

‘Before he even leaves his house, he’s comparing Cast Away to I’m a Celebrity, darkly muttering that he would never appear on that show because “there are just some channels, some people you won’t work for.”’

The Times

Rating:

Carol Midgley writes: ‘Did Schofield seem bitter or self-pitying as he prepared to spend ten days alone except for a camera on an uninhabited tropical island off the coast of Madagascar? Yes! “I think there’ll be an awful lot of people who hope that I never come back,” he said, melodramatically.

‘I hate to say it, Phillip, but most people have probably forgotten all about it and are more worried about their gas bill. “I know what I did was unwise,” he said, sitting cross-legged on a beach “but is it enough to absolutely someone?”

‘I’m no fan of Schofield, but I don’t think it is, actually. Both parties were, it seems, consenting adults. Schofield was publicly lauded when he came out as gay but vilified when he actually had a gay relationship, the charge being that it was an “abuse of power”‘

i News

Rating:

Emily Baker writes: ‘The jungle survival part of the programme was nothing we hadn’t seen before – comedian Ruby Wax endured the same experiment for Channel 5 last year, while Bear Grylls and co have been showcasing their own survival skills on screen for years.

‘Watching Schofield fish, start a fire and search for mangoes was much less interesting than what he had to say for himself. Plus, he hadn’t exactly been abandoned – his survival kit included a tent, knives, cooking equipment. He was not Tom Hanksing it.

‘Obviously – and depressingly – he came off incredibly well. Stories of his late father (who he sometimes speaks to, aloud), memories of feeling suicidal and his daughters pulling him from the brink, and ribbing himself (“I don’t quit – I’m fired, but I don’t quit”) all forced me to warm to him. But I shouldn’t have been surprised – the entire point of this series is to prime us for a Schofield renaissance.’

Alert – Phillip Schofield declares ‘you learn a lot about people’ in television and there are parts of his career he ‘really, really doesn’t miss’ in the first episode of Cast Away TV series

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Phillip Schofield Cast Away: The critics’ verdicts are in