Katherine Jenkins lands reality TV judging role

Katherine Jenkins lands reality TV judging role (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Katherine Jenkins is to follow in the footsteps of Cheryl Cole after landing a role as a TV talent show judge. The unnamed ITV primetime Saturday show will see established pop singers attempt to sing opera. The job, could net Katherine, 29, a reported £100,000, and boost her profile as The X Factor has done for Girls Aloud star Cole. Classically trained pianist and I'm a Celebrity... star Myleene Klass will host the programme. An ITV spokeswoman denied that Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts and tenor Russell Watson were also being lined up to join the judging panel. She said the show was being planned for 2010 and that details of other judges had yet to be finalised. Mezzo-soprano Katherine was recently forced to cancel a London concert after needing hospital treatment for the Norovirus. The blonde opera star already enjoys a wide profile beyond the world of classical music. She performed on The X Factor final in 2007 with then contestant Rhydian Roberts.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.