Jeremy Clarkson nervous ahead of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? debut
Grand Tour star hopes gameshow won't flop with him as presenterJeremy Clarkson has admitted he’s nervous about presenting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? – in case he doesn’t live up to Chris Tarrant.
ITV has revived the legendary quiz, four years after it ended, for an event series to mark its 20th anniversary.
However, former host Chris isn’t back, with Jeremy now guiding contestants on their way to £1million.
The Grand Tour star told The Sun how he’s feeling the pressure – because viewers don’t always like it when TV favourites change hands.
“I have said taking over the show well-known for one host and then doing another doesn’t always go well,” he said.
“It is difficult following Chris Tarrant on Millionaire because he was bloody good at it.”
Jeremy knows all too well about new presenters failing on classic programmes.
After the brash 58-year-old left Top Gear in a blaze of controversy in 2015, BBC bosses drafted Chris Evans in as its new frontman.
However, Chris suffered severe criticism from viewers and critics, and ended up quitting after one series.
Millionaire represents a fresh challenge for Jeremy, as it is a more formal and rigid format to his motoring shows.
He revealed on ITV’s This Morning yesterday that he’s struggling to get to grips with the autocue.
“I’ve never used autocue before,” he confessed. “This is Manchester, they may as well have put it in Birmingham!
“The other one is, the contestants are about that far away, some are quite quietly spoken.
“I can’t hear a word they’re saying, so I don’t know what they’ve said! I can’t see and I can’t hear, and they’ve hired me!”
Jeremy is also apprehensive about the brand new fourth lifeline – Ask The Host.
Sitting alongside 50:50, Ask The Audience and Phone A Friend, it gives players the chance to ask Jeremy if he can help with any questions they can’t answer.
“I could end up costing somebody a lot of money by being bombastic,” he told The Sun.
“Once somebody has gone past even £100, I mustn’t lose sight of the fact they’re playing for large sums of money.”
The new series of Millionaire features seven hour-long episodes airing stripped across one week.
It kicks off tonight at 9.15pm on ITV, then continues every night at 9.00pm until Friday 11th May.
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