Bookies have started taking bets on who might step in to replace Holly Willoughby on This Morning... and Amanda Holden is current favourite.
Amanda Holden is among the top names cited to replace Holly Willoughby on This Morning later this year.
Willoughby will join Declan Donnelly in Australia to present I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! while his presenting partner Ant McPartlin continues his break away from work.
ITV said that “plans for This Morning will be announced in due course”, but bookmakers have already released their first wave of odds on who might be joining Willoughby’s co-host Phillip Schofield in her absence.
Britain’s Got Talent judge and actress Holden, who has acted as a stand-in presenter on This Morning, is the favourite with 2-1 odds, according to bookmaker Coral.
Saturdays singer Mollie King has odds of 3-1, while This Morning regular Ruth Langsford is at 4-1.
Former Gogglebox star Scarlett Moffatt is at 8-1, Coral said.
Moffatt was previously touted as one of the most likely stars to join Donnelly in the jungle this year.
Other names include Love Island presenter Caroline Flack (10-1) and Britain’s Got More Talent host Stephen Mulhern (12-1).
Coral’s Harry Aitkenhead said: “Amanda stepped in for Holly back in 2014 when she was on maternity leave and she’s our favourite to help Phillip once again whilst Holly goes into the jungle.
“Mollie King is another in the mix and as a hugely popular figure at the moment would certainly go down well with the viewers, whilst we rate the likes of Scarlett Moffatt, Stephen Mulhern and Caroline Flack as outsiders for this particular gig.”
TV regulars including Rylan Clark-Neal, Gok Wan, Lisa Snowdon and Rochelle and Marvin Humes are among the other stars who have stepped in to guest present the weekday programme, and could fill Willoughby’s place.
Willoughby has co-hosted This Morning alongside Schofield since 2009. The duo are currently on a summer break from the programme while Langsford and her husband Eamonn Holmes take the helm.
Willoughby said, of her temporary I’m A Celebrity role, that McPartlin’s shoes are big ones to “keep warm for a little bit”, and that she might struggle in the jungle because she is “scared of everything that moves”.
McPartlin, who has presented I’m A Celebrity with Donnelly since the series started in 2002, previously announced he is stepping back from TV commitments and public appearances following a drink-driving conviction which saw him banned from the road for 20 months and fined £86,000.
