Here, the pair talk to RT about what goes into co-hosting This Morning, their first meeting and riding out the challenges of 21st century TV.<\/p>\n
Talk us through your pre-show routines…<\/p>\n
Cat I go to bed quite early because my kids are young, so I tend to do bedtime stories, put them to bed, then put myself to bed. I get up at five and jump in a car at 6.20, because if I get hooked into the pre-school routine, it\u2019s a disaster. We\u2019ve got my make-up down to 20 minutes. Breakfast is a banana and coffee so strong you can stand your spoon in it.<\/p>\n
Ben: On Good Morning Britain, I used to be really disciplined about going to bed. But now I don\u2019t worry, because waking up at 6.30 feels like a three-hour lie-in. I jump on the taxi bike about 7.20. If they get me in make-up for 20 seconds, they\u2019re pleased. I have actually forgotten to do it at all a few times. For breakfast, I\u2019ll have porridge and coffee or some granola and Greek yoghurt.<\/p>\n
Cat: By the time we do the food item on the show around 11, we\u2019re ravenous, so we\u2019ll usually carry on eating during the commercial break.<\/p>\n
Ben: Yeah. None of that food gets left.<\/p>\n
When did you first meet?<\/p>\n
Ben: The day before the first show.<\/p>\n
Cat: I flew in from Atlanta, then came to the studio.<\/p>\n
Ben: We\u2019ve definitely got to know each other on air.<\/p>\n
Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google<\/a> Does the chemistry have to be real, or can you fake it?<\/p>\n Ben: You probably could for a bit, but I think you\u2019d get found out fairly quickly.<\/p>\n Cat: Authenticity is important. When someone\u2019s watching TV, it\u2019s intimate \u2013 you\u2019re in their living room, or their kitchen. I\u2019d never say anything on air I don\u2019t believe is true, or say I love something if I don\u2019t. That wouldn\u2019t sit right with me.<\/p>\n Does it feel like a TV marriage?<\/p>\n Ben: Well, of course Cat\u2019s fighting with my other TV wife, which is the Tipping Point machine. I\u2019m very affectionate towards that machine.<\/p>\n Cat: [rolling her eyes] Apparently Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench are huge fans of Tipping Point\u2026<\/p>\n Who\u2019s been your favourite celebrity guest?<\/p>\n Ben: I loved it when the three from The Morning Show<\/a> [Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup and Karen Pittman] came on.<\/p>\n Cat: Because she plays a morning TV presenter, we asked Reese to read from the autocue, and she did it brilliantly. We were, like, \u201cDon\u2019t make it look that easy!\u201d<\/p>\n Ben: But it\u2019s the ordinary people who come in and share their stories, too \u2013 like the guy we had on recently with the world\u2019s smallest penis. I know it\u2019s a good headline, but it takes real bravery to do something like that, and it\u2019s our responsibility, and our privilege, to create a safe space for those people.<\/p>\n Want to see this content?<\/p>\n Accept and continue<\/p>\n Do you think there\u2019s a snobbishness towards daytime in the industry?<\/p>\n Cat: There used to be, but not any more.<\/p>\n Ben: I certainly feel there\u2019s huge respect from our colleagues in primetime, because they understand the sheer volume of work that goes into delivering a show like this every day.<\/p>\n Cat: I think, more generally, there used to be much more of a \u201cstay in your lane\u201d attitude. People used to put you in a box \u2013 a movie star versus a serious stage actress, or daytime versus primetime\u2026 I don\u2019t feel that any more. You can be a singer and you can be in a movie.<\/p>\n Ben: Or if you\u2019re Gary Barlow, you can do a daytime wine show on ITV.<\/p>\n These are difficult times for the industry. Are you confident traditional broadcasters can ride it out? <\/p>\n Cat: It\u2019s definitely changed. But I think it will find a balance. It\u2019s interesting how all the social media people want to be on TV, and all the TV people want to be on social media and podcasts. We still get extraordinary volumes of feedback from our viewers, who tell us how much they love the programme. They also tell us if they don\u2019t like what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n Ben: We are very much the curators of this show for the time being. We know the landscape is changing, but there\u2019s still a massive appetite for programmes like this. It\u2019s magical, this show. When we had the PM on the other day, Cat asked him about how divided the country is. But if you sit on this sofa, day in, day out, you realise there are a lot more brave, courageous, brilliant people out there than the ones who want to divide us.<\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is out on Tuesday \u2013 subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Check out more of our Entertainment <\/a>coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Cat Deeley, 49, made her name alongside Ant and Dec…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-768584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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