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Holly Willoughby has returned to presenting, more than a year after her departure from ITV daytime show This Morning.
The 43-year-old TV personality left the programme last year, shortly after the controversy-stricken exit of her longstanding presenting partner Phillip Schofield.
Schofield left This Morning after it emerged that he had been engaged in an affair with a much younger colleague. Willoughby has also had to deal with a high-profile legal case, in which a man was arrested and convicted of plotting to kidnap and murder the presenter.
Now, Willoughby is back as one of the hosts of You Bet!, a reboot of the classic British game show, which she presents alongside Stephen Mulhern.
The first of two specials episodes premiered on ITV shortly before the semi-final of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!.
In the series, celebrities are made to bet on the ability of members of the public to complete unlikely stunts and challenges.
The first episode featured Rob Beckett, Alison Hammond, Harry Redknapp and Rosie Ramsey as the celebrity guests.
Reaction to the episode on social media was, however, underwhelming, with many people sharing damning assessments of the show’s quality.
“ITV continue to get revivals wrong,” one person wrote. “#YouBet had a great concept with a good theme song and they’ve changed that and bringing all the trappings of modern celebrity in it. Too many cuts to the hosts and guests and no focus on the challenge and dramatic music. What a waste.”
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“Why does ITV make an arse of things when they reboot classic game shows?” another asked. “Wheel of Fortune with Graham Norton was dire, likewise some of Epic Game Shows with Alan Carr, Deal or No Deal with Mulhern padded out to an hour instead of Noel Edmonds’ 45 minutes and now You Bet…”
“I bet that I won’t watch this again next week…” joked a third.
Someone else complained: “Can confirm the #YouBet reboot is so far dreadful. The theme tune is clearly from the stock library, the first timed task was clearly edited down (gotta fit more ads in) and the editors think we’re more interested in what the audience think instead of just showing the task.”
Schofield, meanwhile, made his own return to TV earlier this year, in a three-part survivalist series titled Phillip Schofield: Cast Away.
