The Claudia Winkleman Show is ending after just one season.
In a moment of candor, The Traitors host announced today that she was “just too nervous to enjoy it” and will be stepping away from the late night chat show.
Winkleman was handed the chat show by the BBC after she exited Strictly Come Dancing but with her star on the rise following several beloved seasons of The Traitors and The Celebrity Traitors. The idea was that the series would broadcast when The Graham Norton Show is off-air in the spring, meaning there will be no clashes between the shows and they will not be competing for guests. Both chat shows are produced by So Television.
The Claudia Winkleman Show launched earlier this year to decent ratings of around 1.4 million overnight but lost viewers through the run. Guests were high-profile, including Jeff Goldblum, Lisa Kudrow, James McAvoy and Dan Levy, but Winkleman clearly wasn’t enjoying herself as much as she thought she might.
“Sometimes you have to try something to see how it fits, and I realised I was just too nervous to enjoy it,” she said in a statement. “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.”
BBC entertainment boss Ed Havard said he “fully respects” Winkleman’s decision, although he described the show as an “absolute joy.”
She will be back on UK screens soon hosting the second season of the Celebrity Traitors, which was one of last year’s most-watched shows of the year. She also hosts Channel 4’s The Piano. She previously hosted Strictly Come Dancing for 15 years and this will be her first year away from the BBC entertainment juggernaut.