SINCE turning 50, Dermot O’Leary looks to be keen to shake up his CV.
Last year he added a new gig as a quizshow host on U&Dave’s Silence Is Golden and I can now reveal Channel 5 have tapped him up to front an American football-themed gameshow.
Dermot will team up with Strictly’s Sam Quek for the new gameshow[/caption]
Dermot will be joined by Olympic hockey ace and Strictly Come Dancing star Sam Quek for the programme, which comes from the makers of Gladiators and The Wheel, Hungry Bear.
A source said: “Before he became so comfy on the This Morning sofa, Dermot was the life and soul of primetime, shiny floor programming so is the perfect fit for a show like this.
“He also played the game in his youth for the Colchester Gladiators and has turned out for some charity games.
“The show is at pilot stage but Dermot and Sam have really good chemistry so everyone is excited about taking this to a full series at some point.
“Hungry Bear are the masters in this realm, and NFL is such a growth area.”
Sky Sports is the home of NFL on UK television, but ITV was the channel to most recently give the game a push.
Laura Woods and then later, Craig Doyle, hosted The NFL Show before it was canned in 2024.
In the past the BBC had shown highlights of games for a number of years, with Mark Chapman and then Dan Walker holding the reins.
But Dermot and Sam could finally make it stick.
He’s certainly keen to offer up “night time Dermot” – something he said working on Silence Is Golden allowed.
Probably for the best, as the Super Bowl can really drag on, can’t it.
Suranne in her prime on Netflix
Suranne Jones is all smiles at the beginning of her new Netflix show, but things soon take a turn for the worse[/caption]
An explosive trailer teases the show, which drops on the streaming service on August 21[/caption]
Suranne Jones is all smiles at the beginning of her debut Netflix show, but things turn pretty dark, pretty quickly.
Playing a newly elected prime minister, she arrives in her new Downing Street home full of hope but then she discovers that her husband has been kidnapped.
Events at Downing Street take a turn for the worse[/caption]
Suranne stars as the new PM whose life turns dark when her husband is kidnapped[/caption]
It’s all teased in the explosive new trailer for five-part thriller Hostage, which drops on the streamer on August 21.
The series is Suranne’s first project with Netflix, having previously been more closely associated with Beeb dramas, including playing a medic in Doctor Foster then a toff in Gentleman Jack.
Now she’s playing a prime minister. It seems she’s constantly moving up in the world.
Kidnap Chloe’s BBC doc
In My Unbelievable Kidnapping, Chloe Ayling will recount how the terrifying experience in 2017 changed her life[/caption]
The BBC dramatised Chloe Ayling’s abduction ordeal in last year’s series Kidnapped.
Now she will tell her own story in the first interview since her abductors’ conviction.
In My Unbelievable Kidnapping, she will recount how the terrifying experience in 2017 changed her life.
Then a glamour model, Chloe was snatched in Italy by a criminal gang known as Black Death.
Handcuffed and held in a remote farmhouse, she was told she would be sold as sex slave, but she persuaded them to let her walk free.
Her kidnappers, Lukasz Herba and his brother Michal Herba, were jailed in 2018.
Chloe said: “I’m delighted BBC Studios are telling my story.”
It airs on BBC Three on Aug 4 and BBC One on Aug 6.
PRIME VIDEO Has confirmed its highly-anticipated, gritty new drama The Girlfriend will air on September 10.
Based on Michelle Frances’ novel, it follows a family whose life changes when their son brings home a new girlfriend.
Robin Wright, Olivia Cooke and Laurie Davidson star.
A look Byke to the 90s
Ant & Dec’s home channel ITV has snapped up the rights to stream teen drama Byker Grove[/caption]
Ant & Dec’s magnum opus is returning to TV screens, nearly twenty years after it was last on air.
The Geordie duo’s home channel ITV has snapped up the rights to stream teen drama Byker Grove.
As well as catapulting the lads to fame as PJ and Duncan, it also launched the careers of actors including Donna Air and Jill Halfpenny.
Byker Grove originally launched on BBC One in 1989 and followed the lives of a group of young people at the Grove youth club in Newcastle’s Byker district.
It tackled big issues like drug addiction, child abuse, homophobia and abortion and in 1994, the series featured the first gay kiss on UK children’s TV.
The deal has come about as part of Ant & Dec’s production firm Mitre Studios partnership with ITV.
It’ll stream on STV (pls keep) and ITVX later this year.
Richard Williams, STV’s managing director, said: “Just when you thought the 90s revival might have been slowing down, we’ve only gone and brought back one of the seminal TV shows of the decade.
“Byker Grove was an integral part of so many British childhoods and we’re delighted that those original viewers – now of a slightly more mature vintage – can relive all the nostalgic action on STV Player.
“And if any Gen Z viewers want to find out who really started the baggy trousers trend, look no further than Byker Grove!”
Misia Butler, Eden Hambleton-Davies and Jack Rowan have boarded series two of the BBC and Netflix’s The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
Based on the bestselling novels by Holly Jackson, the new run picks up after Pip solved the Andie Bell case and will begin filming soon.
Davina’s ordeal
Davina McCall has opened up about her brain tumour ordeal[/caption]
Davina McCall has recalled the moment when she received the worst news of her life when she was on the set of The Masked Singer.
The presenter was talking at the Happy Place Festival about her ordeal when she discovered she had a brain tumour.
Although it was benign, it was still growing and she decided she had to have it out last year – an experience which she says means she is no longer afraid of death.
Davina said: “For four months I was like, ‘Well benign. That’s fine. I don’t need to do anything about it.
“Then I phoned somebody (a surgeon) in America and I said, ‘You are absolutely not going to operate on me ever, but please will you just give me an honest opinion?’
“I was at The Masked Singer and she’s going: ‘Okay, it’s a big tumour, it can’t grow anymore or you will get water on the brain and you’ll go into a coma.
“If you were on a plane, you’d have to do an emergency landing’.”
