Too-cool Cat and her cool-for-Cat success
Presenter admits being an ass over Wonkey Donkey
says she dismissed SM:TV Live as a “wonkey donkey”.
Cat Deeley
She admits thinking she was too cool to host the ITV kids’ programme with Ant and Dec. But she was right to give the show a chance as it launched her career two decades ago and went on to become a cult hit.
Mum- of- two Cat, 44, admits: ‘“I was doing MTV at the time and they wanted a girl. I ended up going in to see them because one of the producers called me and said, ‘ I have got this show’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know’.
“I was so stupid, I thought I was too cool for that. What a load of baloney!
“I felt I didn’t want to do children’s telly. And he said, ‘Listen, just come and meet the lads’. So I went in, met them and it has been great.”
SM:TV launched in 1998 and featured the longrunning game Wonkey
Donkey – where viewers were asked to name what they saw in front of them in two words, with Dec getting increasingly frustrated when contestants got the answer wrong.
The Saturday morning show ran until 2003 and attracted 2.5 million viewers at the height of its popularity. But it didn’t start well.
At first, the trio were a disaster, but the show eventually took off and turned Brummie Cat into a household name.
She hasn’t looked back since – going on to front the Dancing with the Stars in the US.
“When we first started, we were absolutely rubbish,” Cat tells BBC Radio 2. “It was dreadful. But we got a bit better, formed this chemistry and started to do sketches and be a bit silly. That was when it became really fun.”
Cat will relive the magic with Ant and Dec in The Story of SM:TV Live on ITV tonight at 8pm
1. Boxer Nicola Adams and professional dancer Katya Jones. 2. Gwrych Castle. 3. Peter Sawkins. 4. Michael Fagan.
film. 4. No Time to Die. 5. Parasite. 6. Mulan.
1. Joe Wicks. 2. Sophie Ellis-Bextor. 3. Andrea Bocelli from the Duomo in Milan. 4. Extraction starring