Phillip Bryan Schofield ( ; born 1 April 1962) is an English television presenter. He rose to prominence as a Children's BBC continuity presenter from 1985 to 1987, and went on to present a wide range of programmes for the BBC and ITV, including Going Live! (1987–93), This Morning (2002–23), Dancing on Ice (2006–14, 2018–23), All Star Mr & Mrs (2008–16), and The Cube (2009–15, 2020–21). As an actor, he played the leading roles in the musicals Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Doctor Dolittle.
In 2020, Schofield came out as gay and separated from his wife of 27 years. In May 2023, he admitted to having had an extramarital affair with a male ITV employee more than 30 years his junior and to lying about the relationship to ITV's management, his work colleagues, his lawyers, his agents and others. Amid extensive media coverage, Schofield resigned from ITV and was removed as an ambassador for the Prince's Trust. In subsequent interviews, he said his career was over, that he had "lost everything" and that he felt "utterly broken".
Early life
Schofield was born on 1 April 1962 in Oldham, but moved to Newquay, Cornwall at the age of eighteen months. He attended Trenance Infant School and Newquay Tretherras School. When he was 15, his first foray into media was a Sunday show on Hospital Radio Plymouth. Despite moving so young, he says he is proud of his Lancashire roots (Oldham being in the county of Lancashire until 1974).
After many years of writing letters to the BBC, at 17, Schofield took up the position of bookings clerk and tea boy for BBC Radio at Broadcasting House in London, where he was, at the time, the youngest employee.
Career
Television
Aged 19, Schofield moved with his family to New Zealand, where he made his television debut as the initial presenter of the youth music programme Shazam! on 23 February 1982. He also spent two years working for the Auckland-based radio station Radio Hauraki.
In 1985, he returned to Britain, where he became the first in-vision continuity presenter for Children's BBC on weekdays for two years from September 1985 in what was known as the 'Broom Cupboard'. He left in 1987 to present Going Live! on Saturday mornings between September 1987 and April 1993. From 1988 to 1991, he was the host of the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, a pop-magazine awards show.
In the early 1990s, Schofield moved to adult-orientated television with various programmes for ITV, such as Schofield's Quest, Schofield's TV Gold and Ten Ball. From 1994 to 1997, he presented Talking Telephone Numbers for five series and in 1996 he hosted a show about remarkable coincidences called One in a Million. He co-authored the book that came out of the series.
In the following decade, Schofield presented the National Lottery Winning Lines programme for BBC One between June 2001 and October 2004. And between 2002 and 2006, he co-hosted the BBC quiz show Test the Nation with Anne Robinson. In July 2006, he signed an exclusive two-year contract with ITV, reported to have been worth £5 million. The exclusive deal also meant he could no longer present Test the Nation and was replaced by Danny Wallace.
In August 2002, Schofield became a presenter on the ITV daytime show This Morning, joining John Leslie and Fern Britton on Fridays. In October of that year, Leslie stepped aside from the programme after allegations about his personal life, and Schofield replaced him as Britton's co-host, first on a temporary and then a permanent basis. In May 2008, Schofield's father died from a long-standing heart condition, after which Schofield took a break from presenting This Morning. John Barrowman stood in for him until his return. In 2009, Holly Willoughby replaced Britton as Schofield's co-host.
Starting in 2005, Schofield presented two series of Have I Been Here Before?, a daytime programme in which a celebrity attempted to use regression to get in touch with a previous life.
From 2006 to 2023, he presented The British Soap Awards. Between 2006 and 2008, he hosted the programme with Britton.
During the run of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, he co-hosted the spin-off series I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here! Exclusive with Sheree Murphy. The show lasted one series. In 2006, Schofield presented two episodes of the ITV game show It's Now or Never, before the network cancelled the show, due to poor ratings.