Phillip Schofield returned to Instagram some months back, then was back on our TVs in Cast Away over the weekend, but it’s only now he’s braved X.
Posting about his desert island experience – which saw him skinny-dipping, and running away from a suspected ‘big cat’ in Madagascar as his tent caught on fire – the former This Morning presenter, 62, made his return to the app for the first time in three years.
‘Brief return to X. I’m so proud of these shows. Cast Away streaming now on My5,’ he said, alongside a picture of him sitting on a beach.
This comes 16 months after he admitted to lying about an affair with a younger colleague on This Morning and left ITV.
His last X post before this was in 2021, when he posted a picture alongside Boy George, which he captioned with: ‘Not again!!!’
But commenting on his latest post – shared on October 1 – some people weren’t wholly impressed at Schofield’s return to the screen and social media.
‘Whoever advised you to attempt a gentle comeback should be sacked,’commented @SavMondo, continuing: ‘You’ve earned more money in your career than most of us will in our lifetimes and with that comes responsibilities, which you abused.
‘There’s no coming back from that,’
Meanwhile Super TV commented: ‘You can leave again.’
@gangster_ram agreed, adding, ‘Sorry Phil but there’s no coming back,’ while @Matt8004 said: ‘Every day on this planet feels more and more like a black mirror episode.’
@PeteWhite5000 commented: ‘Testing the water to see how you will be received by the public…. Good luck 😬😬’
‘You’re at least brave to peer your head back into this app brave and stupid,’ said @MAKBOT.
However, some were happy to see him back, as @DonnaBlack999 commented: ‘Love you. Phil. Good luck for the future, block haters, I do. X’
To that, the presenter replied: ‘I do 🤣’
Another follower @Slipslidingjim said: ‘Wow what a response some positive some negative, at the end of the day you made a mistake.
‘You’ve put your hand up & said so, I don’t blame you for not returning to tv after this, life is about making mistakes and learning from them. Whatever happens I hope you find happiness.’
The series was torn apart by critics who argued that Schofield failed to show any remorse and simply lashed out, including in a suspected dig at his former This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby.
While Schofield did say he was ‘forever sorry’ for ‘hurting people around me’ when he lied about his ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair, he spent much of the three-part documentary – which saw him stranded on an island for 10 days – feeling sorry for himself for being ‘cancelled’.
‘I will find a way. I will not be defeated,’ he said in words you’d expect from a victim or survivor.
He also blamed his ITV exit on the negative publicity surrounding his brother Timothy Schofield, who was sentenced to 12 years for child abuse.
Schofield’s re-entry into the TV industry has also failed to set viewers alight, with Cast Away losing a third of its audience between the first and third episode.
The final night drew in the three-parter’s lowest ratings of 988,000 viewers, a drop from 1.1million the previous night and shy of the 1.1m benchmark for the slot, according to Broadcast.
Cast Away’s first episode drew the largest audience of 1.4m, meaning that each episode had fewer viewers than the last.
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