Robert Rinder has admitted he has two big reservations about replacing Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain.
The Judge Rinder star has become one of the names reportedly in the frame to join the ITV breakfast show after Piers’ sudden exit earlier this month.
While he has admitted he finds the prospect of sitting alongside his friend, GMB co-presenter Susanna Reid, “very interesting”, Robert also says he’s concerned about the early starts and the prospect of online abuse.
Appearing on Lorraine on Monday, Robert told the presenter: “The difficulty is … first of all, I don’t know how you do it. You’ve managed to do it over the years and you’re not even in sympathetic lighting and you’ve managed to stay line-less.
“Of course, you get up at six o’clock in the morning. If I got up at three o’clock in the morning and had to cross-examine some lying, idiot politician who is trying to tell me porkies I think there might be a nuclear-powered reaction.
“As you know, I don’t do nonsense of any sort. But I think it would be a very interesting thing indeed.”
He continued: “I’m not sure I could endure the wave of Twitter hate.
“That being said, anybody on Twitter who has got residual energy to write mean things about anybody is not a happy human being.”
Robert issued a similar warning to politicians last week when he first broke silence on the replacement rumours.
He told The Sun: “Piers has been on that show for a few years,” he explained. “I think the politicians and people that whinge about the world that come on that programme to be cross-examined will consider Piers Morgan to be a birthday present.
“If I was on it, that’s all I’m saying, no other comment.”
The paper also reported that GMB bosses will be trialing new stand-in presenters in the coming weeks, including Robert and BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire.
ITV announced Piers would be leaving the show with immediate effect earlier this month, following controversial remarks he made about the Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Ofcom later confirmed it would be launching an investigation under its harm and offence rules after over 40,000 complaints were made – a figure that has since grown to over 57,000, making it the most complained-about incident in Ofcom history.
Just hours before Piers’ exit, he also made headlines when he stormed off set during a row about the Duchess with colleague Alex Beresford.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am with Lorraine following at 9am on ITV.
