Melinda set to return to TV SWINDONâS Melinda Messenger will star in a new prime time TV show from next month.
The former glamour model will team up with footballer Ian Wright and The Apprentice runner-up Kate Walsh for a new nightly magazine show on Five.
I canât wait to get cracking on the new series. Melinda and Kate are great girls and I love the banter we already have. I struggle to get a word in when those two get going!
Ian Wright
This year, Swindon-born Melinda has featured in Fiveâs Cowboy Builders and ITVâs Dancing On Ice. Her TV career began in 1997 when she appeared on Eurotrash on Channel 4.
Melinda said: âI am very excited to be part of a brilliant, innovative new show.
âI canât wait to work with Ian and Kate who are fantastic and I think we are going to have lots of fun together.â
She will be fronting a news, talk and entertainment show looking at the dayâs news with a mixture of live and recorded location reports, together with celebrity interviews, gossip and banter.
The show launches on September 14.
Richard Woolfe, Channel Five controller, said: âThis is news â but not as you know it. Itâs a chatty, forthright spirited magazine. Ian, Melinda and Kate have warmth and attitude â they are a high energy, up front, breath of fresh air.
âFor the first time on British TV, presenters will be passionately discussing news events and expressing their no holds barred opinions in a way that reflects the way we all interact and react to the biggest stories of the day.
âWith three such opinionated yet diverse hosts, the show is guaranteed to be lively, entertaining, unpredictable, spontaneous and sometimes outrageous and controversial â just watch the sparks fly.
âEvery other broadcasterâs schedule at this time is totally predictable and I believe thereâs a huge opportunity for a show like this which will shake things up, put Five on the map and get viewers talking about the channel.
âFive has a fantastic record of innovation in news programming and this show will take that to the next level.â
Former Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright is looking forward to working with Melinda.
He said: âI canât wait to get cracking on the new series. Melinda and Kate are great girls and I love the banter we already have. I struggle to get a word in when those two get going! It will be high energy, fast-paced and a great laugh.â
Kate Walsh, runner-up in this yearâs Apprentice, added: âBecoming part of the presenting team on the new show is an exhilarating and thrilling challenge â and I love a challenge!
âI canât wait to get stuck into daily live TV, and the show promises to be a totally new way of reviewing the dayâs news.
âIan and Melinda are both consummate professionals and great fun, and Iâm looking forward to bringing a bit of me to the personality of the show.â
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