Dermot O'Leary has made an unusual early appearance on This Morning as he became Holly Willoughby's latest co-host. The latter presenter has so far had Josie Gibson and Craig Doyle by her side as she started to navigate life on the programme without Phillip Schofield.
Holly, 42, hosted the show alongside her former friend for 14 years. But last week, the presenter made a tearful return to the ITV daytime show after she took a fortnight off of hosting duties after extending her pre-planned half-term break following the announcement that her former co-star had quit This Morning due to their rumoured fallout behind the scenes 'becoming the story'.
Phillip, 61, then later stepped back from ITV altogether after admitting lying to Holly and his employers about a relationship with a much younger ITV colleague. Holly later claimed she was "shaken, troubled and let down" as she addressed the scandal head on.
Join our new Coronation Street WhatsApp group by clicking here
But after the statement read out live on air, Holly cracked on with the show as usual and on Monday (June 12) she was back for another week at the helm of the ITV daytime show with Dermot by her side.
Fans are used to seeing the former X Factor presenter fronting the programme on a Friday alongside Alison Hammond but at the start of the first show of the week, as he reminisced with Holly about the last time they properly worked together, Dermot confirmed his stint wasn't a one-off.
After already opening the show and teasing some of what was to come, Dermot turned to Holly with his hand in the air and said: "Hey you!" to which she high-fived him and replied: "Hey Dermot O'Leary!"
Dermot explained how these days, with hosting separately on This Morning, the pair are usually seeing each other in their personal lives and not professionally. He recalled that one of the last times they worked together was on The Xtra Factor in 2008 before Holly gave birth to her first child, now-14-year-old Harry.
"I wasn't even a mum then," Holly said before Dermot remembered after Harry was born and they took him with them on their various trips to cover the ITV talent show for its spin-off. "When you had Harry, we took Harry on his first world tour... I remember picking him up in the air in airports," to which Holly told him: "He's 14 now, Dermot," with the TV star confirming he 'wouldn't be able to do that any more'.
But Holly soon reminded Dermot they had hosted This Morning together before, back in 2014 for just a week. Holly remarked: "You look exactly the same," as a clip of the two of them together played out. "I have a lot more hair which probably isn't mine," she laughed.
And Dermot pointed out that his outfit for the show was almost the same as then, just the dark, high-neck number now came without the sleeves. "
"It's good to have you back," Holly said to which Dermot replied: "Thank you. Looking forward to it. Here for two weeks, right?" Holly cheerily said back: "Yeah, I know!" before they carried on with the rest of the show.
But This Morning viewers couldn't help but take to social media as they spotted a few things that threw them off, including Dermot's appearance and the change to the This Morning theme tune as viewers were met with a dance version of the iconic music with it soon revealed it was Gok Wan who had created the remix.
@discoagogo tweeted: "The most disturbing thing on #thismorning for a while is the lovely Dermot O’Leary’s top today. It’s high neck but short sleeves. In this heat. I DON’T UNDERSTAN."
@mostlystupid quipped: "Dermot's dressed to present #ThisMorning at ten, but going to dance his t**s-off at GAY at 1pm." @a___w89 asked: "Why hasn’t Dermot aged #ThisMorning."
@Cwhite93x posted: "WTAF is This Mornings new theme tune #thismorning #why." @Anono1111 commented: "Ah new title music. I thought my TV was on the blink! #ThisMorning." @ShakyWoon added: "The #ThisMorning titles get remixed! Tuuuuuunnnnneeeeee!"
READ NEXT:
