Phillip Schofield’s TV comeback might just be a stroke of genius

‘I know what I did was unwise, but was it enough to absolutely destroy someone?’ Phillip Schofield asks in his unexpected TV comeback set to air as soon as next week.

It’s been 16 months since Schofield’s catastrophic exit from This Morning – one of the most sensational falls from grace in TV history – and with the beauty of hindsight, Schofield is finally putting that killer question out to his biggest critics.

In the space of a few weeks in May 2023, his affair with a much younger colleague on This Morning was exposed, his best friend Holly Willoughby could hardly contain her distain for him even on camera, and he’d lost total faith in his once fiercely loyal audience.

After appearing on television almost every day, Schofield didn’t even make a single public remark until his first social media post a year later.

Now, on Monday, he is laying himself bare like never before, living completely alone on a desert island off the coast of Madagascar with nothing but a lip balm (and no vape) as his sole luxury item for a three-part Channel 5 show, which has come completely out of nowhere.

He could have named his price to appear on any reality TV series. I’m A Celebrity, Celebrity Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing – no doubt they’ve all come knocking and likely with a blank cheque.

But all of them would have been an unmitigated disaster. He’d have been thrust back into the spotlight and have weeks to make another career-ending cock-up. 

In all honesty I’m slightly amazed Schofield wants to make a comeback at all. He was once ITV’s highest-paid presenter and had six-figure deals with We Buy Any Car and his own wine brand – why even put yourself through the torment of public scrutiny ever again?

In all likelihood, being the highest paid presenter at the UK’s biggest channel comes with pride and ego.

Schofield is clearly determined to make sure his legacy will be more than being the UK’s biggest TV presenter who copped off with a much younger colleague. 

Will he get the redemption he’s so desperate for in Castaway?

I’m of course yet to see what Schofe does, says or if he survives being stranded on a desert island for 10 days and I’m not Mystic Meg, but this is without a doubt a genius move on his behalf.

A book or a documentary would have been too self-indulgent; no other star would credibly want to put their name next to his for a new show; and as it stands there isn’t a brand or charity that would touch him with a barge pole.

For Schofield to win back the public at all, especially the fans who grew up with him and those who watched him every day on This Morning, he needs to go through an emotional journey and come out of the other side, transformed, refreshed and willing to take full accountability for the end of his TV career.

Few people can possibly imagine what it’s like to have gone from national treasure to being treated like a criminal and a monster overnight. It’s an exclusive club absolutely no star wants to join and at the height of Schofield’s downfall he was public enemy number one for, as he put it at the time, ‘an unwise but not illegal’ affair.

At the very least, Castaway will be an astonishing insight into how the most talked about man of the last 18 months picked the pieces of his life up after we saw him chain-smoking a vape and revealing that without the support of his daughters he was ready to end it all.

Some level of redemption, yes, seems achievable. Schofield managed to charm over the nation like no other in his prime and putting himself out there in such a vulnerable and exposed fashion will only do him a huge favour if he can really convince us he’s a decent man who made an unthinkable mistake.

Even though it might be the right move for him, I have to ask: Will it be the beginning of the TV comeback he appears to want so much?

I think that ship has sailed, crashed into a rock and now sits at the bottom of the sea.

We can wish Schofe well without wanting him back on our screens.

The allure of the silver fox with the signature smile who seemed, by TV presenter standards, almost perfect has faded beyond recognition now.

There’s no way back for Phillip Schofield the TV presenter; the magnitude of his downfall was too huge. Even if on Castaway he proves the real Schofield isn’t the villain he’s been painted out to be, he’ll never be able to convince us he’s the man people adored on This Morning, The Cube and even going way back to The Broom Cupboard.

We’ve seen Schofield left completely broken and hopeless, and if anything watching Schofield fend for himself on a desert to face his demons is only going to be a reminder of the career that’s been lost and a man who has survived a living hell.

A comeback for Schofe feels impossible but if this is the last lifeline to save his legacy then Castaway might just be a stroke of genius.

Castaway airs Monday for three nights at 9pm on Channel 5.