Ben Shephard: ‘I’ve faced scrutiny on TV – but I’m not brave enough for Strictly’

Ben Shephard doesn’t rate his cha-cha-chances of hosting Strictly Come Dancing – insisting he simply isn’t ‘brave enough’ for the top telly job.

TV’s Mr Nice Guy ruled himself out of the running to replace Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman, who sensationally quit the razzle-dazzle show last year.

Having already come under scrutiny after taking the reins of This Morning, alongside Cat Deeley, he’d rather waltz away from another wave of public expectation and opinion.

‘Hosting Strictly?! Goodness me! Saturday nights. I’ve never even done Strictly [as a contestant],’ Ben told Metro and other media.

‘I feel like anybody that hosts that show needs to have a bit of an insight into what it is like to go through the mill.’

Action-man Ben often puts himself through the wringer – in 2009 he scaled Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief and his new series The Summit will send pulses racing – but Strictly is too tall a task.

‘I’ve never been brave enough do it. I’ve climbed the mountain [Kilimanjaro]. I’d do The Summit. But I’m not brave enough to take on Strictly,’ he said.

Beeb bosses are rumoured to be considering Alan Carr and Amanda Holden, and Alex Jones and Rylan Clark, who previously presented spin-off It Takes Two, for the peachy primetime positions.

Of course, 51-year-old Ben knows all too well just how demanding and divisive it can be to helm a popular flagship format.

In 2024, he and Cat were drafted in to permanently replace scandal-struck Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning.

While the pair found their feet at the helm of ITV’s daytime staple, ratings suffered a sudden dip, with some questioning the hiring.

‘[You] sort of take it in your stride, really. We love doing the job that we get to do and understand that there is a lot of ownership of the show… because of the viewers that make it work,’ Ben said.

‘I welcome it. I enjoy doing what we’re doing and making sure we are delivering a show that the viewers want to enjoy and watch, and also that part of it is not something I massively dwell on.’

The dad of two, who shares sons Sam and Jack with long-time missus Annie, learned to shrug off the initial criticism.

‘I just have to get home and realise I’ve got three loads of washing and my teenage sons to tidy up after,’ Ben said.

‘There are bits of it that I can concern myself with… that I can listen to and take on board, stuff I think is interesting, or valuable, and then forget about the stuff that’s not.’

An uphill struggle (literally) awaits in his latest project The Summit, which kicks off next week on ITV.

Fourteen strangers face the daunting challenge of climbing a mountain in the rugged Alps of New Zealand and potentially pocket a £200,000 prize.

Expect twists, turns and treacherous terrain as participants are also tasked to eliminate fellow competitors along the way.

Among the line-up is Warren Furman, aka Ace from the original Gladiators, and Afton McKeith, daughter of health guru and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! icon Gillian McKeith, and an ex of Brooklyn Beckham.

‘The physical challenge is not to be underestimated. Not one of these people had climbed a mountain in the past,’ Ben says.

‘By the time you get to the snowline, they are in crampons with ice axes, climbing up glaciers, roped together in case anybody falls off. It was jaw-dropping what they had to do.’

And Ben’s brain is already whirring with possibilities about who from his ITV family he would cast in a celebrity version.

‘I’d throw Joel Dommett in there in a minute. He would be fantastic. Cat would be bang up for it. She is really game, she’s got young boys, so she likes a bit of camping, I think,’ he said.

‘[Kate] Garraway would be awful. She wouldn’t even find her way out of the airport to get to the hotel at the start. She’d be absolutely hopeless but brilliant telly.

‘Dermot [O’Leary] would be brilliant, and Alison [Hammond] would be cheering everybody on. She’d be dancing all the way up.’

The Summit premieres on Tuesday February 10 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

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