Claudia Winkleman
Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images
Beyond those blunt black bangs and expertly caked-on eyeliner, there’s still anxiety. As a result, Claudia Winkleman has quit her own BBC talk show after one season. “I’m incredibly grateful to the BBC for giving me the opportunity, to the guests who agreed to come and chat to me, and the production team who were simply excellent,” Winkleman explained in a statement, per the BBC. “Sometimes you have to try something to see how it fits, and I realized I was just too nervous to enjoy it. Maybe one day I will give it another try, but for now I already have the best jobs in the world and absolutely love the shows I’m doing.”
Winkleman’s show was intended to fill the spring slot left open when Graham Norton chose to scale back his yearly churn of episodes to a fall-winter run. The series averaged 1.5 to 2 million viewers per episode, whereas Norton’s version averages between 2.5 and 3 million. “Claudia’s warmth and quick wit made The Claudia Winkleman Show an absolute joy,” Ed Havard, the director of entertainment at the BBC, said. “Whilst we loved the show, we fully respect her decision and would like to thank Claudia and the brilliant team at So Television for bringing the series to screen on the BBC.”
Winkleman is popular enough in the U.K. that she doesn’t need to do anything that makes her anxious. She hosts both the celebrity and normie versions of The Traitors over there, and while The Traitors is also a hit in the U.S., it is the biggest TV show in the U.K. The finale of the celebrity Traitors was watched by 15 million people — nearly a quarter of Britain’s population. The second season of that show will air later this year, featuring celebs including Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us), Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant, and Industry star Myha’la. In other words, Winkleman is doing fine.
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