Claudia Winkleman has a chat show on the BBC. I’m struggling to understand why this is a story but I listened to an entertainment-industry podcast recently which tried to explain. Apparently, chat shows are ratings death; hardly anyone watches them, so TV execs are very reluctant to launch new ones. But because of Traitors, Winkleman is now huge, bigger even than Ant and Dec, so against their better judgment they decided to give her a shot.

They’re probably regretting it, though. Everyone wants Claudia to do well because she seems nice. But goodwill and niceness aren’t enough to carry a new chat show, as we could have gleaned right from the beginning of her second show, when Claudia engaged in some completely unarranged-in-advance, ad-libbed audience bonhomie with a gay couple near the front who were there on their first date.

If Winkleman’s chat show flops and doesn’t get recommissioned she shouldn’t blame herself, just the genre

If Winkleman’s chat show flops and doesn’t get recommissioned she shouldn’t blame herself, just the genre

Imagine! An actual gay couple on their first date! Was there EVER a rarer and more wonderful thing in the world? Well, the audience couldn’t immediately think of one and whooped and clapped for all they were worth, as Claudia teased out the gorgeous details. It had started on a run for gay men and despite the one chap being all red-faced and........

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