Inside Zoe Ball’s future plans as bidding war breaks out to tempt her back to TV

DEPARTING Radio 2 host Zoe Ball is set to return to her telly career next year – and I understand both ITV and Netflix are already eyeing her up.

She’s previously dipped her toe in waters beyond the BBC appearing on shows including Celebrity Gogglebox, The Masked Dancer and, in 2023, fronting talent contest Mamma Mia!

So the corporation may have a fight on its hands to keep her, not least because the 54-year-old stands to pocket far more than the close to £1million salary she bagged doing the radio show.

A TV insider said: “The ‘life’s too short’ mantra she seems to be adopting doesn’t just extend to leaving the gruelling job of doing the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, it now includes looking at going back to her TV roots.

“After all, she sees her contemporaries like Claudia Winkleman, Tess Daly, and Davina McCall appearing on prime-time shows.

"It seems there’s never been a better time to be a fifty-something woman in TV presenting, and Zoe already brings with her a huge following.”

Zoe shot to fame in the Nineties presenting BBC One’s kids’ show Live & Kicking as well as Top Of The Pops, and juggled telly with being a Radio 1 presenter for many years.

But she became best known in recent years for hosting the Radio 2 Breakfast Show from January 2019.

Last week, Zoe revealed she was quitting the programme after the death of her mother earlier this year.

She’s believed to have grown closer to her ex-husband, Norman Cook, who’s the father of her two children, Woody and Nelly.

Zoe has been pairing up with Woody on Celebrity Gogglebox and he recently said he fancies doing more telly with his mum.

He said: “Me and my mum keep being pitched for really cool stuff. The industry is so hard, but we’ll get there.

“I’m excited for whatever we end up landing on.”

Please don’t let it be another TV travelogue . . . 

ROBBIE’S EARFUL OFF SARA

COMIC SARA PASCOE has revealed Robbie Williams once came to her defence.

She was stunned when the singer rang to offer his support after he heard a fellow comedian being rude to her.

Talking on the podcast, Five Brilliant Things, hosted by funnyman Russell Howard, she said: “Robbie heard me on a podcast with a male comic.

“The guy wasn’t being nice. So he was ringing to say, ‘That guy wasn’t nice to you.’

"I’ve talked about Take That so he knows I’m a fan. It was a video call but I had it by my ear, so Robbie was looking down my earhole!

“Then he invited me to his film premiere. I’ve his number now, it’s hard not to text him!”

Maybe don’t send him images of your lughole, Sara.

TOP Of The Pops will be back next month with a “festive special” But it won’t be like the BBC’s original Christmas Day one with live acts, which was axed in 2022 after 57 years. 

Instead Clara Amfo will share pre-recorded performances of acts as part of a review of the best music of 2024.

THE BBC has announced a new six-part drama called Babies, which will explore the trials of a young couple’s desire to become parents. 

The show, which will star Paapa Essiedu, Jack Bannon, Charlotte Riley and Siobhan Cullen is currently filming in London.

JAMES IS BUTT OF JOKES

SEND To All is one of the most loved segments on Michael McIntyre's Big Show.

The comic takes a celebrity guest’s phone and sends a prank text to their phone book to see who falls for the gag.

But the famous recipients have now got wise to the trick and started to bite back. James Acaster told the RHLSTP podcast: “I used to fall for them. I don’t any more.

“I got a thing about Tom Allen firing his cleaner and thought he accidentally sent it to me.

“But I just got one from Judi Love that is definitely a prank. She messaged, saying ‘I’m off to get a Brazilian butt lift. You’ve got such a peachy butt, I want to base it on yours, can you send me a photo?’

“I replied ‘Yep’ with a photo of Michael McIntyre’s face.”

Talk about a race to the bottom . . . 

STRICTLY STEPS UP TO PLATE

MASTERCHEF will be serving up not one but two specials this Christmas.

There is a Festive Cook Off featuring Love Islander Luca Bish, singer Max George, soap star Amy Walsh and comedian Shazia Mirza.

Plus, in a one-off special, MasterChef will host a Strictly extravaganza featuring the dance show’s Kai Widdrington, Nancy Xu, Amy Dowden and Gorka Marquez , all competing for the crown of MasterChef Christmas cha-cha champion.

And since the most recent winner of the regular celebrity MasterChef was another Strictly star, Vito Coppola, they’ve got some pretty big dance shoes to fill in that kitchen.

Maybe John Torode can be recruited for Strictly in return, given that Gregg Wallace has already had a stab at the show.

KATH IS CRAVEN DRAMA

KATHERINE KELLY is a long way from Coronation Street in her new thriller.

The actress – who was the ITV1 soap’s Becky McDonald – plays psychotherapist Dr Sophia Craven in The Crow Girl, a six-part drama for Paramount+.

It is an adaptation from Erik Axl Sund’s international best-selling Scandi noir novel of the same name but was made for the UK and was filmed around Bristol.

When the bodies of unidentified young men start to show up, beaten and full of the anaesthetic lidocaine, DCI Jeanette Kilburn (Eve Myles) and partner DI Lou Stanley (Dougray Scott) are on the hunt for the killer.

With a lack of evidence and pressure to solve the case mounting, DCI Kilburn enlists the help of Dr Sophia Craven, who offers a troubling new perspective on the case.