There are plenty of regular faces on our primetime TV lineups that get far too much credit
Lorraine Kelly has made the list
(Image: ITV)
The small screen greats – Jeremy Paxman, Michael Parkinson, Stephen Fry. What do they all have in common? They knew how to present a TV show. The same cannot be said for some of today’s most popular faces. ITV and the BBC seem insistent on putting the same old presenters at the front of every new gameshow, reality spin-off and lifestyle programme on the airwaves.
And though Bradley Walsh, Claudia Winkleman and Michael McIntyre might have escaped my wrath – for now – I’ve gone ahead and listed the nine mainstream presenters I think are the worst on offer in 2025.
This is, of course, my opinion. I’m sure they’re all delightful people in their own right – but for one reason or another, they don’t tick my boxes when it comes to hosting. Let us know your worst presenters in the comment section.
9. Ed Balls
I’ll admit, I do have a bit of a soft spot for Ed Balls. When I was still in secondary school, and he was still the education secretary under the Labour government, he paid a visit to my science classroom and tried to seem interested in our experiments with Bunsen burners.
But as a presenter on GMB, he falls flat. Not only is he insistent on grilling members of his own former party – even his wife, former home secretary Yvette Cooper – but Ed is rather poor at hiding his political allegiances. Let’s just say it’s a surprise he doesn’t work for the BBC.
(Image: ITV)
8. Lorraine Kelly
ITV’s Lorraine has been criticised again and again for her lax attitude to her day job – often disappearing for weeks at a time under the guise of “school holidays”, despite her only daughter being an adult who has children of her own.
From her all-smiles, all the time attitude – even when announcing a death live on-air – to her clear dislike for plenty of her guests, Lorraine is painful to watch. She has hit back at one viewer who accused her of “loving everybody, every book, and every song of people [she] has on the show”.
Lorraine clapped back: “Well, it would be a wee bit daft to have people on if you hated their work, don’t you think?”
Maybe she needs to internalise those words a wee bit more.
(Image: ITV)
7. Tess Daly
As Claudia Winkleman’s less verbose on-screen sister, it’s past time Tess Daly was taken off Strictly Come Dancing. In fact, she may as well be replaced by her puppet alter ego from Spitting Image, which simply repeated the phrase “keep dancing!” over and over like a stuck record.
Sorry, Tess. You definitely bring the glitz and glamour, but your lack of genuine interest or empathy for the celebs and their professional partners is grating.
(Image: BBC)
6. Jon Kay
BBC Breakfast anchor Jon Kay left a sour taste in my mouth when he was announced as Dan Walker’s permanent replacement when the latter ditched the Beeb for pastures new over at Channel 5.
While Dan was an affable sort of cringe, Jon has none of the charisma, and across from Sally Nugent he often seems awkward – like an ill-fitting suit sitting on the famous red sofa.
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5. Amanda Holden
Let me preface this by saying: I don’t hate Amanda Holden. In the right scenarios, she’s funny and relatable. But other times, she just plays things too over the top – and tends to make it all about her.
As a judge on Britain’s Got Talent, Amanda has taken to the stage on several occasions to show off her own singing voice. She proved even more controversial with the presentation of The Inner Circle, with Pointless star Richard Osman voicing his dislike for the programme on his podcast, The Rest is Entertainment.
If she dials it back a few notches, I’m happy to give Amanda another chance. But, as it is, she seems to have taken a leaf from the Kate Garraway school of hammy acting (more on that later).
(Image: BBC)
4. Jonathan Ross
As if his ungrateful denouncement of Celebrity Traitors wasn’t enough to put Jonathan Ross firmly in the ‘Get Him Off My Screen’ box, his unbearable presenting style for his own chat show would be.
Not only is Ross being paid a flat rate of £40,000 to appear on the gameshow – plus given the chance to win cash for his chosen charity – he’s gaining even more fame and notoriety than he deserves after his infamous 2008 radio prank call with Russell Brand.
I’m not sure what Ross’ talent is, but he’s no Graham Norton when it comes to the world of chat shows. He constantly interrupts his guests, tries to tell his own stories over theirs, and is generally a nuisance. Please, no more.
(Image: ITV)
3. Stephen Mulhern
What more is there to say on Stephen Mulhern that hasn’t already been said? Although arguably he shouldn’t care about what I think, being one of ITV’s highest earners, in my opinion he’d have been better off sticking to a career at Butlins.
From being Ant and Dec’s less loveable sidekick to presenting his own shows like You Bet! and Catchphrase, Stephen is a hard face to avoid on primetime telly. And maybe it’s precisely that over-saturation that makes his presence so hard for me to swallow, or maybe it’s that he needs to work on his jokes. Either way, he doesn’t have the charisma to pull off such a heavyweight title.
2. Kate Garraway
She said it best in her own words on Celebrity Traitors, but I cannot stand Kate Garraway’s hammy acting. Criticised by fellow Faithfuls Tom Daley and Clare Balding for being too “over the top” during the BBC competition series, Kate carries on her exaggerated gestures and exclamations in her regular presenting career on Good Morning Britain.
Now she’s (loudly) admitted: “I’m a terrible ham!” I feel less guilty saying it out loud. Although Kate has shown incredible strength over the past few years with the loss of her husband Derek, as a presenter her style just does not float my boat.
(Image: ITV)
1. Ben Shephard
It seems that Ben Shephard is everywhere I turn. The Tipping Point presenter, who first plagued my screen each day on GMB, left me feeling a bit disjointed when he was announced as Phillip Schofield’s replacement for This Morning.
I’m not sure what it is about Shephard, other than his apparent disinterest in everything he works on. The more lighthearted lifestyle segments on This Morning highlight this in high-definition – while Dermot O’Leary can believably throw his all into experimenting with skincare, watching Ben try to stay awake through it makes my eyeballs hurt.
(Image: ITV)
