Bizarre Phillip Schofield tribute delivered by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary on This Morning
It’s the first time This Morning has been aired since Phillip Schofield announced he was leaving the show over the weekend.
Friday hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary stepped up to present this morning, with Holly Willoughby off this week, and the presenters headed up the show with a bizarre tribute to the former host.
Speaking about 61-year-old Schofield, Hammond and O’Leary looked solemn when Hammond said at the top of the show, live on air: “We all know he’s one of the best live television broadcasters this country has ever had.”
The production team then went on to display a montage of photos of Schofield on a screen, none of which featured his former co-star Holly Willoughby. Instead Schofield was alone in all the pictures.
O’Leary added: “Everyone on and off screen at This Morning want to say a huge thank you to Phil.”
Here’s the moment as it was broadcast live on ITV this morning at 10am.
It has been reported that Phillip Schofield and Willoughby had a falling out behind-the-scenes while working on the show, which ultimately put pressure on Schofield to leave his presenting role, but This Morning’s ITV have yet to comment to state exactly what happened.
Hammond and O’Leary will continue to present this week as rumours mount about who might take over from Schofield on the This Morning sofa on full-time presenting duties.
So far one name that has been banded about to step into the role is former X Factor star, author and TV host Stacey Solomon, although nothing has been confirmed yet.
It comes as Schofield faces a challenging period, with his brother Timothy having just been jailed for 12 years for sexually abusing a boy.
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