Holly Willoughby presented This Morning without a hangover following a relatively lowkey night at the National Television Awards.
The team behind ITV’s daytime show were in attendance at Tueday (5 September) night’s awards show, where prizes are voted for by the public.
This Morning has taken home the prize for Daytime Programme numerous times in recent years, with Willoughby and former co-host Phillip Schofield often presenting hungover the following morning.
However, the team lost out to The Repair Shop on Tuesday night, with Willoughby surprisingly sprightly as she presented alongside Craig Doyle on Wednesday (6 September).
Opening the show, Doyle told Willoughby: “I feel good. I feel strong, and I don’t feel hungover.”
“I mean that is a first,” Willoughby replied, with Doyle saying: “Because there was a possibility.”
“There’s always a possibility,” she quipped, before thanking host Joel Dommett for a “lovely night” and sending a “huge congratulations” to The Repair Shop.
Willoughby then asked Doyle how he’d found his first NTAs, with him admitting that he had found the experience “terrifying”.
Willoughby at the National Television Awards— (Getty Images)
“But it was a brilliant, brilliant night,” Doyle said. “We didn’t hit it too hard, but you have a reason for that.”
Willoughby then explained that her dress had been very tight, making going to the bathroom a logistical nightmare.
“I was like, ‘Nil by mouth,’” she said. “I had half a glass of prosecco, I think.”
Back in 2018, Willoughby and Schofield failed to turn up to This Morning the day after the NTAs. The show then began late, with Willoughby telling viewers: “I’m not sure how today’s going to go. I didn’t get much sleep last night. I’ve eaten a full English and a pizza this morning.”
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The same pattern occurred in 2019, when Schofield threatened to vomit on screen.
Presenting hungover with former co-host Phillip Schofield after the 2016 NTAs— (ITV)
In 2020, however, many viewers argued that the schtick was wearing thin and that the presenters were being “unprofessional”.
In May, Schofield quit This Morning following a reported feud with Willoughby. A week later, he left ITV altogether after admitting to lying about an affair with a colleague on This Morning.
Schofield confirmed he met the younger man, who was not named, during a school visit when he was 15 years old. However, Schofield said the affair only began when the younger man was in his early twenties and working on This Morning.
Returning to the show in June following a two-week break, Willoughby told viewers that she had been “shaken” and “troubled” by Schofield’s admission.
“You, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth,” she said. “Who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV and step down from a career that they loved. That is a lot to process.”
