Celebrity chef James Martin made his name as the presenter of BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, offering famous guests their idea of “food heaven” or “food hell” for 10 years before hanging up his apron in 2016.
Now the chef will be serving the latter to his former employer every weekend, as he returns to screens to present a brunchtime ITV show to rival Saturday Kitchen.
Saturday Morning with James Martin will be another serious challenger to the BBC’s collection of cookery programmes, which have been a major success for the broadcaster in recent years but which it has struggled to keep.
Last year, the producers of The Great British Bake Off, the most-watched TV show in Britain, revealed the series was moving to Channel 4. Ten of the 11 most-watched TV programmes in 2016 were Bake Off episodes, with nearly 16 million people viewing the final in October.
Martin’s rival Saturday morning show will be a further blow to the BBC. The chef will present Saturday Morning with James Martin from his kitchen at home.
He left the Saturday Kitchen last March after a decade on the programme. The BBC initially replaced him with guest presenters, but in March this year it confirmed Matt Tebbutt would be the regular host. Other recent hosts include Michel Roux Jr, John Torode and Angela Hartnett.
Martin said he was “really excited” to work with ITV. His new series is one of three commissions announced by the channel, following his daytime series James Martin’s French Adventure. He will also front James Martin’s American Adventure, which will air during the day and in peak hours.
“ITV is just such a wonderful broadcaster and an absolute pleasure to work with,” Martin said. “Me and my team feel right at home here and are really excited about growing our relationship with the new projects we have coming up.
“Being back on Saturday mornings feels really exciting. Not a day has gone by in the last year without someone asking me if I’ll be back at that time … But it was really important to me to do things differently, so the new show will take some unexpected turns – watch this space.”
Helen Warner, ITV’s director of daytime, said: “James Martin is an outstanding chef and broadcaster, and has proved to be a big hit with ITV viewers from the success of the French Adventure series.
“We are very much looking forward to collaborating with him again on these exciting new commissions.”
ITV has not confirmed when Saturday Morning with James Martin will air. It is understood the two-hour show will be pre-recorded rather than broadcast live like Saturday Kitchen. However, like its rival BBC show it will feature guests from the worlds of food, entertainment and sport.
