Host of The Claudia Winkleman Show was \u2018just too nervous to enjoy it\u2019<\/p>\n
When the BBC revealed Claudia Winkleman was to be given her own chatshow, she deployed her trademark self-deprecation to note that it \u201cmight be excruciating\u201d. Yet after just one series, it is the presenter \u2013 rather than the audience or guests \u2013 that has found the show to be too much of an ordeal.<\/p>\n
The all-conquering host of The Traitors and former Strictly Come Dancing presenter has quit The Claudia Winkleman Show after just one series, saying she was \u201ctoo nervous to enjoy\u201d the conversations with the great and the good who visited her sofa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m incredibly grateful to the BBC for giving me the opportunity, to the guests who agreed to come and chat to me, and the production team who were simply excellent,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes you have to try something to see how it fits, and I realised I was just too nervous to enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe one day I will give it another try, but for now I already have the best jobs in the world and absolutely love the shows I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a surprise move from the presenter, who was handed the show after seeing her stock rise to stratospheric levels after the success of The Traitors and its celebrity spin-off.<\/p>\n
Her chatshow only launched in March, with just seven episodes made. Winkleman took on her own programme after occasionally filling in for Graham Norton, seen as the master of the format in the UK. His show commands more than 2 million viewers per episode.<\/p>\n
The ratings for Winkleman\u2019s programme attracted an average combined audience of between 1.5 million and 2 million viewers, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n
While Winkleman remains a popular figure, her chatshow divided critics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe loved her on the radio, we loved her on Strictly Come Dancing, we revere her on The Traitors, we wish to be her when we grow up or at least sport a modicum of her Traitors wardrobe,\u201d wrote the Guardian\u2019s Lucy Mangan of the opening episode.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is obvious. This is a given. And all of this remains true despite the unholy mess of the opening instalment of the long-and-loudly-heralded Claudia Winkleman Show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her departure appears to confirm the chatshow format as one of the most perilous in the television industry, with several prominent hosts struggling to get to grips with the pressures and spotlight of small talk, celebrities and a live audience.<\/p>\n
Winkleman is not alone in rethinking her role on the format. Fellow presenter Davina McCall, whose chatshow struggled in a prime slot in 2006 when her stock was similarly high, has since said she regretted making it in the format.<\/p>\n
Winkleman had already experienced the stress of live interviews early in her career when S Club 7\u2019s publicist halted an interview with her on Liquid News, the BBC\u2019s former celebrity news show.<\/p>\n
Several senior TV insiders had questioned whether she would enjoy the format, given its formulaic approach to chat. Winkleman has always specialised in her knowing looks and wry takes on The Traitors.<\/p>\n