Holly Willoughby reinventing her career as she quits ITV’s You Bet!
Holly Willoughby is making changes to her TV career in the spotlight.
ITV’s darling has quit game show YouBet! and Dancing on Ice’s future remains uncertain, so it begs the question what will the presenter do next?
This weekend ITV confirmed the TV star, 44, was unable to film You Bet! because of the filming dates, suggesting she already has something else in the pipeline. TV bosses hope she will return to the ITV show as a guest panellist, where she would not need to be available for all of the filming dates.
Clash of dates
An ITV spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, Holly couldn’t commit to the dates to host the new series of ‘You Bet!’, but will hopefully appear as a guest panellist on one of the shows in the new series.”
You Bet! is a game show that originally aired on TV in the UK in 1988 with the late Bruce Forsyth as the first host. Willoughby teamed up with her long-time showbiz pal Stephen Mulhern to host the show where contestants take on bizarre challenges but now she won’t be back permanently.
The friends — who first hosted ITV Saturday morning children’s show Ministry Of Mayhem together, that later became Holly & Stephen’s Saturday Showdown — also co-host ITV’s skating show Dancing on Ice. The final over the weekend may be its last.
Dancing on Ice’s 2025 final saw Coronation Street’s Sam Aston win the final over the weekend while Olympic legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean performed live on the ice for the very last time.
The reality show faces rumours that it could be axed amid plummeting ratings and budget cuts. If this is the end of Dancing on Ice, Willoughby no longer has any shows with ITV that have been announced to the public.
But as one of the broadcaster’s most talked about presenters, it’s unlikely to be the end of the road with ITV.
Willoughby had chosen to return to her Dancing on Ice hosting duties in 2024 but she quit her job on ITV’s daytime show This Morning after 14 years when she become the target of a kidnap, rape and murder plot in October 2023. Gavin Plumb was imprisoned for his crimes for life last year.
Big changes ahead
It was this trauma in her personal life that marked a huge turning point in her career as the mum-of-three moved away from daytime television. As well as her TV work, Willoughby reinvented herself as a lifestyle guru with her brand Wylde Moon which offers luxury products to help people relax in their homes from candles to Eau de Parfum.
Instead of appearing on our screens four days a week on This Morning, Willoughby has turned to primetime television and streaming services. Putting herself on a global stage, the TV presenter signed a mega deal with Netflix said to be worth £1million to front Celebrity Bear Hunt alongside Bear Grylls.
In February, Willoughby spoke to Yahoo about how she has been reinventing herself when it comes to her television career — thanks in part to Celebrity Bear Hunt.
She told Yahoo UK: “It [Celebrity Bear Hunt] did feel different, there’s no two ways about it. Normally I’m in the UK, I’m in a studio, it’s live TV. This was completely out of my comfort zone. But I think it’s really good to keep testing yourself and changing things.
“Sometimes it’s good to throw everything up in the air and see where it lands. I really enjoyed it.”
Although it has yet to be officially confirmed, it’s understood that Netflix are working on a second series of the show but they are looking at new potential locations including Australia and South Africa. Grylls dropped a big hint about the second series to Yahoo, saying: “[We’re] only just getting going [with Celebrity Bear Hunt].”
So we can expect filming for Celebrity Bear Hunt series two will keep Willoughby busy!
