Jason Manford quits The One Show

Jason Manford has quit the BBC magazine programme The One Show after four months.

Jason Manford has quit the BBC magazine programme The One Show after four months. The comedian has departed the weekday programme to “concentrate on …family and tour commitments”. In an interview with The Sun, published in today’s edition, the comedian admitted to having had online conversations with fans which had gone “too far” in some cases.

Jason Manford and Alex Jones were announced as the new presenters of The One Show in the Summer after hosts Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles defected to ITV1.

Despite the departure of both Bleakley and Chiles audience levels have remained healthy for The One Show with it averaging 4.4 million viewers. The BBC responded to Manford’s departure by saying ‘We have got nothing to say except that we accept Jason’s decision”.

The One Show launched on 14th August 2006 with Adrian Chiles and Nadia Sawalha presenting from Birmingham. The trial run of The One Show was deemed a success by BBC bosses with a full series beginning ten months later in the summer of 2007. Sawalha did not return to the production with singer and presenter Myleene Klass taking over as Chiles’ co-host, however this proved to be a short-lived arrangement with Christine Bleakley being drafted in soon after.

In the summer of this year Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley defected to ITV to host flop breakfast show Daybreak.