Paul O'Grady has revealed that he took on Blind Date because he was worried about who would present it if he didn't.
Talking to TV Times, he explained that initially his close friendship with the late Cilla Black made him hesitant to say yes to the role, but the prospect of a reality TV star presenting the reboot made him reconsider.
"I was very wary because Cilla's so associated with it and it's such an iconic show, I didn't want to mess it up," Paul recalled.
"Then I was terrified they were going to give it to some reality person to host, and it would be shunted to a late-night slot in between programmes called Dogs on the Dole and My Left Breast."
It could be seen as a dig at the fact that Vicky Pattison was in talks to host Blind Date when it was apparently seen as a post-watershed show.
Earlier this month, she hit back at tabloid rumours that she was dropped by the show in a video on Instagram, saying it was the change of timeslot that led to Paul hosting and she's confident he is "gonna smash it".
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And Paul is also not keen on having any reality TV stars appearing on the show in any way.
"We're going to take Blind Date back to its roots. A gentle, funny show," he noted. "I told Channel 5 I don't want any of the TOWIE lot or contestants that have been on telly before, there's too much of that on TV now and I'm not interested."
Paul will be joined by Melanie Sykes on the Blind Date revival as she'll be replacing "Our Graham" on announcing duties.
The new-look series is expected to debut later this summer on Channel 5.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
