C5 brings back Castaway format with controversial return for Phillip Schofield

Phillip Schofield returns to TV screens after a turbulent 18 months

Paramount-owned UK terrestrial Channel 5 will return its Castaway format to screens next week, with former ITV presenter Phillip Schofield making his screen return.

Phillip Schofield Cast Away, produced by Burning Bright Productions, will air as a three-part season across consecutive nights starting on Monday September 30.

It will be Schofield’s first television appearance in more than a year following his controversial departure from rival commercial broadcaster ITV.

Schofield resigned from ITV last year and admitted he had an “unwise but not illegal” relationship with a younger male colleague on This Morning and then lied about it to his colleagues, employer and talent agency.

The Castaway format follows Schofield as he is cast away for 10 days and nine nights on a remote, unpopulated island off the coast of Madagascar.

Channel 5 commissioning editor Guy Davies said: “This isn’t just a survival challenge, it’s chance for Phillip to look back over the last explosive 18 months of his life, and explore what happened. The audience will learn how he feels now about television and the future, as well as the past. And it will be Phillip Schofield as we have never seen him before – unguarded, emotional and brutally honest.”

The series is executive produced by Clive Tulloh and Louise Quayle at Burning Bright Productions. The producer/director is Ewen Thomson.