Bookies place Vernon Kay and Rochelle Humes as favourites to replace Phil and Holly

The current regular long-time hosts of This Morning are under pressure after queue controversy at The Queen’s lying-in-state last week.

With Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby under increasing pressure, William Hill makes Vernon Kay and Rochelle Humes the 2/1 favourites to replace the pair as lead presenter on This Morning.

Kay and Humes were two of the fill-in presenters proving popular with viewers on social media as a refreshing change over the summer on This Morning – which has become stale according to the responses at the time under Schofield and Willoughby. The This Morning Facebook page prior to the regular hosts return was begging ITV to ditch them for Vernon and Rochelle long before this latest issue exploded.

Others proving popular with viewers at the time included Rylan Neil and Ruth Langsford. While the bets are on, the days of ITV execs not being mates with the on-screen talent are long gone, meaning its unlikely a decision to drop the pair who didn’t wait up to 13 hours to get inside Westminster Hall – where they undertook no filming – will be axed. It’s just one in a number of controversies the programme has had in recent years, under the tenure of former GMTV boss Martin Frizell.

Schofield has been a host of the popular show since 2002, while Willoughby has been on it since 2009, but after accusations of skipping the queue to see The Queen’s coffin, rumours are circling that they could be set to leave and it’s Kay and Humes who head the possible list of replacements.

Dermot O’Leary is 4/1, the same price as Josie Gibson, with Craig Doyle, Alison Hammond, Ruth Langsford and Mollie King available at 5/1.

William Hill spokesperson, Tony Kenny:

“They have been mainstays of the show for well over a decade but there have been plenty of calls for Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby to leave This Morning after the controversy around the royal queue. With that in mind, we’ve priced up possible replacements with Vernon Kay and Rochelle Humes the early favourites at 2/1 ahead of Dermot O’Leary and Josie Gibson at 4/1.”

A petition to drop the often giggling giddy pair, who started their careers on children’s television – not a television newsroom or newspaper, has now reached almost 40,000. This is now almost 10,000 more than Colleen Nolan racked up when she attacked camp royalty Kim Woodburn on Loose Women five years ago. This saw ITV Daytime execs bury their head in the sand, and ultimately saw Nolan have to take months off to let the fury die down. A planned music tour also had to be dropped due to poor ticket sales following the viewers criticising the Loose Woman’s  ‘on-screen bullying’ fully aided by the programme and her sister Linda.

Penelope Teeth, ATV Today’s Showbiz commentator:

“The simple question is did you, Phil and Holly, queue for 13 hours like David Beckham? Yes or no? If the answer is no, no matter how legit, how VIP approved, you jumped the queue. Got it?”

To Replace Phil or Holly as a lead This Morning presenter before the end of 2022: