It is very Claudia Winkleman to blame the failure of her chat show on herself. Usually when a TV programme flops or gets the heave-ho, the talent associated with it either get defensive and blame the schedule or the concept, or they never mention it again and hope everyone forgets about it.
But this is Winkleman, who has never turned down an opportunity for self-deprecation – when the series was announced last year she said, “I’m obviously going to be awful”. And so while her decision to call time on it, after only seven episodes that began in March, is a shock, her humility, vulnerability, and grace about it is precisely on-brand.
“I’m 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,” she said. “Sometimes you have to try something to see how it fits, and I realised I was just too nervous to enjoy it.”
She was too nervous for us to enjoy it either. We are used to seeing Winkleman assured, in control, relaxed at flexing between her witty, playful, sincere and maternal sides however the situation demands it. On her chat show, she was someone different – the gushing, lovable weirdo shtick didn’t feel right. The chemistry with her guests wasn’t quite there, she seemed uncomfortable orchestrating a conversation between multiple big personalities, the flow wasn’t right and the power dynamics felt stilted. It was absent of the authority and jeopardy of The Graham Norton Show, which was the inevitable comparison, given their shared time slot and format and the presenters’ shared reign of British entertainment.
