Last night, ITV announced that they had poached the services of the popular One Show host, Christine Bleakley. The deal is rumoured to see Bleakley earning £1.5million a year in her new role, which will see her partnered again with old co-host of The One Show, Adrian Chiles on the new ITV breakfast show, which will begin this September.
Christine has been at the centre of a major bidding war for weeks now, between the two major UK broadcasters and part of the deal will not only see her be part of the new breakfast programme, replacing GMTV this summer, but other prime-time projects, including new entertainment and lifestyle shows. Bleakley, also being well-known for the high-profile girlfriend of prolific Chelsea and England footballer Frank Lampard, was only earning £100,000 a year with the BBC, which wonders how much she had sold out for? The BBC did offer her a new, much more improved deal, but it seems like that money and the close bond with Chiles seems to be more important than loyalty and trust in her case.
When Adrian Chiles quit the BBC two months ago, largely to replace Steve Rider as the new figurehead of ITV’s football coverage, their plans were to remodel the One Show firmly around Bleakley – whose contract with the Beeb expired this September. Popular breakfast presenter Chris Evans and comedian Jason Mannford had been signed up to co-host the show, alongside the Northern Ireland golden girl. They had given Bleakley a new £450,000 a year deal, and a week to mull over the future. With no contact from Christine, the BBC felt there was little option but to withdraw their very tempting and more secure offer.
The departure of Bleakley follows Chiles out of the BBC door, and with Jonathan Ross also leaving the corporation when his contract ends next month, leaves the nation’s favourite TV channel facing a bit of a shortfall in presenting talent. The BBC insist that they have made the right decision, by not entering into a bidding war with their main rivals, for a presenter’s services. I believe that they have made the right decision. After all, no presenter is more important than the service of the BBC to the British public.
The Bleakley/Chiles combination is no doubt going to be a winning one, and will pull more audiences into ITV at breakfast time, which has suffered from the stale progress of the award-winning GMTV in recent times. However, the massive money deal that it is giving Christine suggests that they are putting a lot of faith into her abilities, and there is no guarantee that it will definitely work out. This is a massive gamble for her career and for ITV as a whole, as it will be seen as an expensive flop should things not work out. Although ITV have won this battle, I think the BBC has made a shrewd move and time will move on with new presenters and new talent, to replace Bleakley and Chiles on The One Show.
Some must question though, how important is loyalty?
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