Hearts broke around the UK last year when it was announced that James Martin would be stepping down from his role as host of weekend breakfast show Saturday Kitchen.
The popular TV chef admitted that recent events had forced him to re-evaluate his life, and eventually lead to him quitting the cookery show. In 2015, James witnessed the death of a man right in front of him on stage, which left him feeling that he needed to “take a step back.”
But, now, it seems James is ready to make a return to the world of weekend cooking programmes, as it’s just been announced that he will front his own new Saturday cooking show on ITV!
After a decade on Saturday Kitchen with the BBC, the chef is hopping channels to present ‘Saturday Morning With James Martin’, which will be filmed from his kitchen at home.
James spoke about how excited he was to return to breakfast TV, saying “Being back on Saturday mornings feels really exciting. Not a day has gone by in the last year without someone asking me if I’ll be back at that time …
But he also admitted that this new, two-hour show won’t be exactly like Saturday Kitchen, saying, “But it was really important to me to do things differently, so the new show will take some unexpected turns – watch this space.”
He continued, “ITV is just such a wonderful broadcaster and an absolute pleasure to work with. And my team feel right at home here and are really excited about growing our relationship with the new projects we have coming up.
The chef also tweeted his excitment at returning to Saturday mornings…
[twitter]https://twitter.com/jamesmartinchef/status/862977991437058048[/twitter]
But it seems this new show won’t be the only place you’ll be able to catch James in upcoming months. ITV has also announced a series of daytime shows featuring the cook, called James Martin’s French Adventure, and James Martin’s American Adventure.
Undoubtedly, the show will be going up against rival cooking show Saturday Kitchen in the ratings, given that they’re on at the same time. However, James’ new ITV show won’t be going out live, like Saturday Kitchen, but will instead be pre-recorded.
However, like its BBC rival, it will also feature guests from the worlds of sport and entertainment.
Helen Warner, ITV’s Director of Daytime, said, “James Martin is an outstanding chef and broadcaster, and has proved to be a big hit with ITV viewers from the success of the French Adventure series.
“We are very much looking forward to collaborating with him again on these exciting new commissions.”
In February, it was announced that Matt Tebbutt would be replacing James as the host of Saturday Kitchen, following a roster of stand-in guest presenters.
So which one will you be tuning in to on a Saturday morning?
