Michael Barrymore won’t return to ‘Dancing On Ice’ next year.
The television presenter broke his wrist whilst training for the show in December 2019 and was forced to pull out of the competition, but whilst bosses were initially keen for him to come back for the 2021 series, the plans have been shelved.
A source told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre TV column: "Michael was the landmark signing for 2020, and ITV were delighted to get him on board. When he got injured, they were keen for him to have another crack, and said so both publicly and privately. Something has changed since then, as they have said he’s not back for 2021 despite him being free and keen, and them hinting he would be."
During last year’s series, Michael was replaced by Blue Peter host Radzi Chinyanganya, who left the show in its third week.
At the time, Michael took to Instagram to reveal he had been forced to quit ‘Dancing On Ice’ after breaking his wrist.
He wrote: "Took a nasty fall on the ice last Friday during rehearsals and sadly broke my left wrist. Absolutely devastated to hear that I can’t go on back on the ice for a while. Really enjoyed every single moment of being part of the terrific show and working with all the incredibly talented people involved x (sic)"
He originally signed up for ‘Dancing on Ice’ because it look less risky than some of his other offers he had been given.
The 68-year-old star said: "One offer was to walk from Istanbul to Venice, about 2,000 miles, with a pack on. Another was to be dropped on an island for a month and have to survive off the land. I thought, ‘I’ll take ‘Dancing on Ice’ because I won’t get killed.’"