Steph McGovern launches new show live from her living room
The Steph Show will be broadcast daily on weekdays on Channel 4.
Steph McGovern has launched her new television show live from her living room after being forced to alter its format because of coronavirus.
The presenter said she wanted the programme to be a “power hour of positivity” for viewers during “really strange times”.
The Steph Show’s launch was brought forward, with producers saying they want to bring some “much-needed joy to your day and help you navigate your way through the madness”.
At the beginning of the programme, McGovern said it could be “rough around the edges” because it was being recorded outside the television studio, adding: “But that is how I have been described for most of my career.”
She said: “For a long time I’ve just been living here, in a fair amount of chaos with the baby, but now we’re doing a show from here because, like lots of people, I’m working from home.
“You know what, these are really strange times so I wanted to create a power hour of positivity where we celebrate all the people doing brilliant stuff out there.
“It might be the key workers grafting on the front line – how much do we love them at the minute? – but also the neighbours who are helping people with their shopping.
“We want to come together in this hour and just say thank you, we want to have a bit of a laugh, maybe get inspired, maybe learn a few things as well.”
She added: “This was not what we originally had planned.”
During the programme McGovern spoke to families and workers who had been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The former BBC Breakfast presenter also interviewed Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton du Beke and comedian Keith Lemon, and took part in a home workout.
Ballroom dancer du Beke told the programme that he hoped the coronavirus would not interfere with the filming of the new series of the BBC One competition.
He said the professionals begin working on the show in August, with the celebrities joining shortly afterwards.
“We are all really hoping we are out of it by then and back to some sort of normality,” he said.
“I think everybody will be ready for a bit of Strictly Come Dancing by then, don’t you?”
Du Beke added that he is having the “best time” during lockdown as he gets to spend a lot of time with his family.
– The Steph Show airs daily on Channel 4 from Monday March 30 at 12pm.