Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard talk about This Morning TV 'marriage', beloved guests and industry challenges

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

Cat Deeley, 49, made her name alongside Ant and Dec on SM:TV Live. She presented Fame Academy and Stars in their Eyes before moving to the States, earning five Primetime Emmy nominations as host of So You Think You Can Dance.

Ben Shephard, 51, joined breakfast show GMTV in 2000, was a stand-in host on This Morning from 2005 to 2011, and co-presented Good Morning Britain for a decade from 2014. He’s been a permanent presenter on This Morning since 2024.

Here, the pair talk to RT about what goes into co-hosting This Morning, their first meeting and riding out the challenges of 21st century TV.

Talk us through your pre-show routines…

Cat I go to bed quite early because my kids are young, so I tend to do bedtime stories, put them to bed, then put myself to bed. I get up at five and jump in a car at 6.20, because if I get hooked into the pre-school routine, it’s a disaster. We’ve got my make-up down to 20 minutes. Breakfast is a banana and coffee so strong you can stand your spoon in it.

Ben: On Good Morning Britain, I used to be really disciplined about going to bed. But now I don’t worry, because waking up at 6.30 feels like a three-hour lie-in. I jump on the taxi bike about 7.20. If they get me in make-up for 20 seconds, they’re pleased. I have actually forgotten to do it at all a few times. For breakfast, I’ll have porridge and coffee or some granola and Greek yoghurt.

Cat: By the time we do the food item on the show around 11, we’re ravenous, so we’ll usually carry on eating during the commercial break.

Ben: Yeah. None of that food gets left.

When did you first meet?

Ben: The day before the first show.

Cat: I flew in from Atlanta, then came to the studio.

Ben: We’ve definitely got to know each other on air.

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Does the chemistry have to be real, or can you fake it?

Ben: You probably could for a bit, but I think you’d get found out fairly quickly.

Cat: Authenticity is important. When someone’s watching TV, it’s intimate – you’re in their living room, or their kitchen. I’d never say anything on air I don’t believe is true, or say I love something if I don’t. That wouldn’t sit right with me.

Does it feel like a TV marriage?

Ben: Well, of course Cat’s fighting with my other TV wife, which is the Tipping Point machine. I’m very affectionate towards that machine.

Cat: [rolling her eyes] Apparently Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench are huge fans of Tipping Point…

Who’s been your favourite celebrity guest?

Ben: I loved it when the three from The Morning Show [Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup and Karen Pittman] came on.

Cat: Because she plays a morning TV presenter, we asked Reese to read from the autocue, and she did it brilliantly. We were, like, “Don’t make it look that easy!”

Ben: But it’s the ordinary people who come in and share their stories, too – like the guy we had on recently with the world’s smallest penis. I know it’s a good headline, but it takes real bravery to do something like that, and it’s our responsibility, and our privilege, to create a safe space for those people.

Do you think there’s a snobbishness towards daytime in the industry?

Cat: There used to be, but not any more.

Ben: I certainly feel there’s huge respect from our colleagues in primetime, because they understand the sheer volume of work that goes into delivering a show like this every day.

Cat: I think, more generally, there used to be much more of a “stay in your lane” attitude. People used to put you in a box – a movie star versus a serious stage actress, or daytime versus primetime… I don’t feel that any more. You can be a singer and you can be in a movie.

Ben: Or if you’re Gary Barlow, you can do a daytime wine show on ITV.

These are difficult times for the industry. Are you confident traditional broadcasters can ride it out?

Cat: It’s definitely changed. But I think it will find a balance. It’s interesting how all the social media people want to be on TV, and all the TV people want to be on social media and podcasts. We still get extraordinary volumes of feedback from our viewers, who tell us how much they love the programme. They also tell us if they don’t like what we’re doing.

Ben: We are very much the curators of this show for the time being. We know the landscape is changing, but there’s still a massive appetite for programmes like this. It’s magical, this show. When we had the PM on the other day, Cat asked him about how divided the country is. But if you sit on this sofa, day in, day out, you realise there are a lot more brave, courageous, brilliant people out there than the ones who want to divide us.

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