Strictly Come Dancing star Krishnan Guru-Murthy has thrown shade at BBC’s rival ITV over I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
Th 54-year-old broadcaster is gearing up to lead Channel 4’s General Election coverage from tomorrow night and preparing to grill politicians across the parties.
And after Matt Hancock and Nigel Farage’s stints on reality TV, Krishnan is expecting that after tomorrow night, others may follow suit.
He told Metro.co.uk: ‘I rather suspect there will be lots of politicians looking at reality TV shows this year, or politicians who are leaving for whatever reason, from all sides.
‘There’ll be politicians who lose their seats, and there’ll be politicians who are leaving politics who are looking for something to do and to make some money and to build some fame. I’m sure there’ll be all sorts of people looking at all sorts of reality shows.’
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‘I would be surprised this year if Strictly has a politician,’ he continued.
‘The feeling I got when I was there was that they probably don’t want… I’m not sure politics is the right field for Saturday night entertainment right now, I’m not sure that’s how people feel about politics.
‘Who knows? Who knows who is going to be on that line-up? I’d be really surprised if there’s a big politician there.’
Referencing a very different reality show, he added: ‘I think I’m A Celebrity is much more of a political playground to be honest, because that’s about rivalry and arguments and all those sorts of constructed storylines, which they can do on I’m A Celebrity, so I think that’s much more of a likely place you’re going to see politicians.’
Despite branding it a ‘political playground’, Krishnan has kept his options open for a future appearance on reality TV over at ITV, adding: ‘I haven’t really thought about it. I always look at each suggestion on its own merits, so I don’t rule anything out.’
For now though, he’s focused on the coverage tomorrow night across the nation, but revealed that showing a less serious side of himself on Strictly has actually aided him with news broadcasting.
He told us: ‘I found that being a normal person who enjoys things outside the news and has fun and is emotional and likes challenges and can talk about how they feel and their family and all those sorts of things, was something that viewers really liked and warmed to.
‘People still come up and talk to me about both Strictly and the news now, and they tell me how much they enjoyed watching me on that and how they thought they got to know me so much better doing that.
‘I think that’s the thing about Strictly. It’s such a massive show, and you delve so deeply into it, you bare your soul, the viewers get to know you, and I think they trust you more as a result.
‘If anything, the cliché fear that people will never take you seriously if you do something like that is total nonsense. My experience has been absolutely opposite, people like it.’
He added: ‘The thing is everybody watches Strictly, including politicians and it kind of helps in that world as well because it gives you some common ground outside politics.’
As well as ‘common ground’ over Strictly, being a part of the BBC One competition – in which he was partnered with Lauren Oakley and became the seventh celebrity to leave – saw Krishnan develop resilience, that he’s compared to needing in his broadcasting career.
He shared: ‘You build your resilience. I think there are comparisons actually, because the thing about Strictly was it was a huge, massive unknown world that was very, very different to anything I’ve done before.
‘It felt like the stakes were very, very high. The potential for disaster and humiliation was massive.
‘This is also a very, very big moment. It’s a big moment, it feels like a big moment in all our careers.
‘It’s exciting and nerve-wracking in that way. But you learn to deal with that kind of fear of a big moment as time goes on.
‘I think Strictly does probably make you more resilient in terms of being terrified by something big and scary.
‘The thing about this is that in a way, it feels very familiar, because obviously it’s territory that we’re very comfortable with and familiar with.’
He added: ‘On this scale, for this duration, this is the longest running programme Channel 4 has ever mounted in its history. It’s the biggest programme I’ve ever worked on in my career. So that adds a certain freestyle to the excitement.’
Ahead of the historic night tomorrow and huge career moment leading Channel 4 News, Krishnan said: ‘I’m most looking forward to the whole night. It’s just an extraordinary thing, and it’s going to be a really big moment in history.
‘This is a night that really compares with the only other two massive election nights in my lifetime, which was 1979 and 1997. I think it’s a night we’re going to look back on for decades and remember what it was like and how it felt and where we were. And so I’m really looking forward to that.
‘What I’m not looking forward to is that I’ve got four hours between coming off air at 9am and having to be camera ready again for the Friday coverage. We’ve got a podcast to record at 1.30pm and then I’m doing the news at 7pm!
‘It’s that bit afterwards where I’m going to feel absolutely dead to the world, and I’m not going to have time to sleep, so I’m going to go to a hotel room, close my eyes for a bit, have a shower, get changed, and then go back out, and I know that’s the bit where I’m just going to feel absolutely dreadful.’
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Channel 4’s election night coverage, Britain Decides: The Rest Is Politics and Gogglebox, will start at 9.45pm.
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