Dancing on Ice is back with a vengeance in the New Year and, after a hiatus of four years, fans can’t wait to see it return.
Dancing on Ice Sundays are second only to Strictly Come Dancing Saturdays in the top entertainment show stakes.
And after losing out to the BBC in the Strictly Vs X Factor ratings war, ITV is looking for a mega-hit.
Strictly bowed out on sensational figures of 13million this year – and Phillip Schofield is hoping DOI will deliver the goods for ITV.
Phil said: “Whatever they’ve got on the other side, we’re hoping to thrash its [bleep].”
That’s proper fighting talk where we come from, Schofe.
The silver fox went on to talk about the conversations he’d been having with ITV about how to blow their rivals out of the water.
Phil said: “You always think about ratings, but you can’t tell. Who knows. I don’t present the show for ratings. I want whatever I do to be successful for ITV, that’s who I work for, and everybody wants to make a show that people watch.
“A conversation that has been going on for years, is what’s the best night for it. I think we were Saturdays for a while, but there are big Saturday shows.”
“Where I think we’ve made mistakes in the past – and this is one of the things that I was discussing two years ago – is that we had a number of parents who were unhappy that we finished so late, with the skate-off.
“Which meant that the young kids could watch the beginning of the show, but would never know what happened at the end.
“It’s on at six. It’s a two-hour show, we’ll be done by eight. For me that’s an essential thing that we’ve got right. It’s a two-hour, compact show that your family can sit down and watch that’s wrapped up at a sensible time, on a school night.”
Phil also offered some early thoughts on how this year’s competitors will stack up.
He said: “I’ve seen some of the videos, they’ve sent some through from the rink. I’m pretty sure Antony Cotton doesn’t know what he’s signed up for. Brooke may be feeling the same way.
“Cheryl is adorable, and Alex Beresford took me by surprise. And Kem… the first time I saw Kem, he was a catastrophe, but a very funny one. He’s utterly adorable. I was sent a video of him yesterday and I thought ‘My God, he’s really come on.'”
So it’s all to play for! Dancing on Ice returns to screens on Sunday, January 7th.