Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield apologise to furious This Morning viewers after GBBO host joke
PHILLIP Schofield and Holly Willoughby have apologised to furious This Morning and Great British Bake Off viewers for their ill-judged hosting joke.
After current Bake Off hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins revealed they would not be following the show to Channel 4 after the current series on the BBC ends, speculation has been rife as to who will replace them.
And on Wednesday's show, Holly and Phill opened with an 'announcement' about their involvement in the show, after This Morning's social media team teased fans with some 'big news'.
Phil teased: "I have to say we are in the mix at 100/1 but we can officially announce today that....it's not going to be us.
"We're not going anywhere. I can't bake for my life and I don't want to look like THAT," he added, referencing a mocked up image of their heads of Mel and Sue's bodies.
But after fans of the show took to social media to blast the pair for jumping in the bun-laden bandwagon, the presenters apologised at the end of the show.
Shocked at the outrage caused by their joke, Phillip said: "We didn’t know. We had no idea that our interactive team had done that, and our editor.
"They thought it was a great idea."
Holly added they were "so naughty" and said: "I’m so sorry. I didn’t even know."
The bizarre announcement was made at the start of the show despite the fact the presenting duo's names haven't been linked to the Bake Off.
And fans were far from amused at the prank This Morning decided to play amidst the furore of the hit baking show leaving the BBC to move to Channel 4 from next year.
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One Twitter user wrote: "Rare misjudged 'joke' by Pip and Holly there. Lots of #GBBO fans would've tuned into #ThisMorning especially. Grrr", while another added: "That was it, wasn't it? Sneaky s***. #ThisMorning #GBBO".
Other's felt it was a cheap tactic to get more viewers to watch This Morning, with one raging: "@thismorning @hollywills @Schofe Oh. Hilarious. Nice attempt at getting extra viewers. This is why I won't watch daytime telly."
To say fans of the Bake Off have been up in arms about the changes is the understatement of the year, and many did not take kindly to the joke played by the ITV show.
One simply raged: "F*** off with this bake off s*** #thismorning" while another added: "Don't even joke about stuff like this for twitter likes! Not on guys..."
The announcement by Sue and Mel, who have hosted the show since it began in 2010, that they would not be "following the dough" to Channel 4 was met with despair by Bake Off fans, before sparking anxiety over who would try and fill their innuendo-laden shoes.
Sun Bets currently has former Celebrity Masterchef winner Lisa Faulkner as the frontrunner at 3/1, with the most recent Bake Off winner, Nadiya Hussain following closely behind at 4/1.
Fans now fear judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood will follow Mel and Sue out the tent forever, and it's being hotly debated who would take their place, with Jamie Oliver's name at the top of the pile.
