Staggering sum Holly Willoughby earned every minute she was on screen in Celebrity Bear Hunt revealed

TV’S Holly Willoughby bagged the equivalent of £40,000 for every minute she was on screen in her new show, Celebrity Bear Hunt.

Holly, 43, appears for only 24 minutes across more than seven hours of the Netflix reality show.

She was reportedly paid almost £1million to front the show with adventurer Bear Grylls.

But she is on screen for an average of just 180 seconds in each of the eight episodes.

A TV insider said: “Viewers will be surprised just how little she features in the final version of the programme given all the attention there’s been surrounding the show.

“Holly is a huge talent and very popular with viewers, plus she has decades of experience of presenting big TV shows, particularly live TV which requires a level of excellence few presenters have.

“But in the final edit of Celebrity Bear Hunt she plays second fiddle to leading man Bear, and even gets less screen time than the dozen celebrities who are competing.”

The show, which dropped on Wednesday, sees Bear take stars, including Strictly’s Shirley Ballas, Spice Girl Mel B, The Saturdays singer Una Healy and ex-tennis ace Boris Becker, into the Costa Rica jungle.

Once there, he hunts the celebrities through the wilderness, until they are all eliminated from the contest, bar the last person standing, who is declared the winner.

Former This Morning host Holly, who also fronts Dancing on Ice, features in many of the links between scenes.

But 50-year-old Bear, who is not only on screen longer but also talks a great deal more, takes the limelight.

Her lack of screen time is particularly surprising given that she spent almost a month recording the show in Central America last year.

Discussing fronting a sequel at this week’s launch, Holly said: “We’ll have to wait and see, let’s see how this goes.

"We all had a great time and we’re all very proud of what everyone achieved and did out there.

“It was a monster of a show.”