Phillip Schofield has spoken out about his controversial return to TV after revealing he will be fronting his own survival series for Channel 5.
On Tuesday (24 September), it was announced that the former This Morning host had spent the summer secretly filming a three-part series, titled Cast Away, which sees him spending 10 days trying to survive on an island in the Indian Ocean.
The 62-year-old posted two photos of himself from the show on Instagram the following day. In the first image, he is sitting cross-legged on a beach, with a scruffy beard and in the second, he is seen reclining and using what appears to be a backpack as a pillow.
“Now you know how I spent my Summer!” Schofield captioned the post, which had been liked more than 25,000 times within an hour of it going live. “Alone for 10 days, no food, no water, no crew. My story of survival, both on a desert island and off it. Cast Away starts Monday on @channel5_tv & My5 at 9pm.”
The post follows a cryptic Instagram Story that the former TV host posted on Tuesday evening (24 September): “Watch this space… 9am,” he wrote alongside a winking emoji.
The announcement has sparked derision online, with viewers calling it a “disgrace”.
“Phillip Schofield on a desert island for ten days in his TV comeback? The only way I’ll be watching that is if the island is heavily populated with lions, tigers, snakes and crocodiles,” one person posted on Twitter/X.
“If this is designed to make people feel sorry for him, it will backfire massively. People were just starting to forget, and now they are raking it all up again,” another added.
The series will mark Schofield’s return to television after he sensationally left ITV last year following 20 years with the broadcaster.
In a statement issued at the time, the married presenter said he had had a “consensual on-off relationship” that was “unwise, but not illegal”.
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He apologised for the affair, which happened while he was married to his wife of 30 years, Stephanie Lowe.e
Schofield’s presenting partner Holly Willoughby left This Morning after 14 years in October 2023, explaining her decision as one made “for me and my family”.