BBC faces Saturday night TV crisis as Strictly prepares for difficult reboot
INews
Fellow PR expert Mark Borkowski said the BBC faced the “slow death of Strictly” in the years ahead.
‘I’m a PR expert, Tess Daly’s future is different to Claudia Winkleman’s for key reason’
The Mirror
PR expert Mark Borkowski told the Mirror: “Claudia’s next act writes itself. She’s already colonised the national psyche as the high-priestess of irony and comfort – a woman who can juggle tension and silliness with surgical precision.
“The Traitors has cemented her as the face of ‘controlled chaos,’ the calm within the storm of reality TV deceit. From a brand point of view, she’s gold-plated: trusted, witty, and unflappable. The smart move now isn’t more exposure, it’s selectivity – she is the force of unscripted television: minimal appearances, maximum impact. Less ‘host,’ more ‘television event’.”
Mark added of Tess: “Tess, meanwhile, has the advantage of a blank canvas. Her exit timing feels deliberate – just when Strictly starts to show its age. If she plays it right, this is her Madonna reinvention phase: same warmth, new edge. The US rumours make sense – she has the polish and credibility to slip into glossy network formats or daytime franchises without breaking stride.”
Tess Daly’s Strictly exit could help ‘inexperienced’ husband Vernon Kay with career move
The Mirror
Speaking of what the future might hold for Tess, a PR expert said her career can now be a “blank canvas”. Mark Borkowski told the Mirror: “Tess has the advantage of a blank canvas.
“Her exit timing feels deliberate – just when Strictly starts to show its age. If she plays it right, this is her Madonna reinvention phase: same warmth, new edge.
“The US rumours make sense – she has the polish and credibility to slip into glossy network formats or daytime franchises without breaking stride.”
Mark said the decision by Tess and her Strictly co-host Claudia Winkleman to leave the show was a “masterclass”. He added: “Tess and Claudia read the room.
“They didn’t wait for the format to fail them. They left with rhythm intact, brands unsmudged, dignity trending. The rest of us should take note: if you’re still dancing on a creaking floor, it might be time to change the music.”
Tess Daly’s Strictly exit could help ‘inexperienced’ Vernon
The Mirror
Speaking of his presenting duties previously in the States, Vernon discussed his ABC and NBC roles. “They lasted a series,” he said.
“If you want a laugh, go on YouTube and watch a game show I hosted called the Million Dollar Mind Game. It’s basically me doing an impression of Roger Moore.”
Speaking of what the future might hold for Tess, a PR expert said her career can now be a “blank canvas”. Mark Borkowski told the Mirror: “Tess has the advantage of a blank canvas.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/tess-dalys-strictly-exit-could-36129536.amp
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman quitting Strictly isn’t just TV fluff it’s a masterclass in the politics of timing…
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman quitting Strictly isn’t just TV fluff it’s a masterclass in the politics of timing. Cynics will suspect a hidden narrative beneath the sequins, but taken at face value, this headline is a meditation on the art of departure.
Most people in our business cling on long after the sparkle’s gone, clutching legacy like a comfort blanket. They don’t hear the applause fade they just keep smiling through the echo.
There are always conditions we don’t see: fatigue, friction, that quiet sense that the best ideas have already been used. But real courage is walking away before the audience does. In PR, that’s the line between a career and a cautionary tale.
Comfort is the real career killer the retainer that numbs your curiosity, the “safe pair of hands” brief that slowly drains your edge. You can’t innovate if you’re afraid to vanish for a while.
Everyone’s panicking that AI will take their job. It might but only if you’ve stopped thinking like a human. The bots can’t fake hunger, risk or reinvention. They simply mirror your complacency back at you, in real time. They can replicate your process, not your restlessness. They don’t know what it feels like to be scared of the next act and do it anyway.
Tess and Claudia read the room. They didn’t wait for the format to fail them. They left with rhythm intact, brands unsmudged, dignity trending.
The rest of us should take note: if you’re still dancing on a creaking floor, it might be time to change the music.
When you’ve fronted a juggernaut creaking under its own sequins, the smartest move is to waltz off while the tune still sounds half-decent. Strictly has lost its cultural voltage; the stars have grown wary after too many awkward headlines. Their people can see the writing on the wall no one wants to be the last act in a long-running variety show, thanking a studio audience that’s already halfway to bed.
This exit isn’t scandal; it’s brand preservation. In the business of show, timing is everything and nothing kills a career faster than loyalty to a dying format.
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are quitting. Is Strictly doomed?
The Times
Mark Borkowski, the highly seasoned showbusiness PR, doubts it. “I haven’t heard anything scandalous,” he says. “Tess and Claudia probably thought, ‘21 years, and it’s not so much fun any more.’ You know, it’s about jumping the lily pad in time. It’s not about hanging on. I think that they could have easily stayed with it. But all careers are brilliant when you actually make the move before it drags you under.”
For Daly and Winkleman, the future shines brighter for one than the other. With Traitors Winkleman is at a career high, and has another popular series, The Piano, on Channel 4. She is also a mother who left her prime Saturday morning spot on Radio 2 to “follow [her children] around at home before they leave for good”. But the world can wait. “She has got everything the Americans love in terms of a female presenter,” Borkowski says. “She’s got a strong sense of style and is English in a sort of modern way.”
He laughs at my suggestion that ITV may have made the pair an offer to compere its flagging This Morning. “They’re too big for it and the format is dead as well,” he says.
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are quitting. Is Strictly doomed?
Strictly planning ‘big changes’ after Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s exit
The Mirror
And a PR expert feels that fans could be witnessing the “slow death” of the long-running series that first aired in 2004. PR guru Mark Borkowski told the publication: “This is the slow death of Strictly.
“ITV can hear the death rattle. Stars are wary after all the recent headlines. People have seen the writing on the wall, who wants to be the last act in a long-running variety show, thanking a studio audience that’s already halfway to bed?
‘The exit of Claudia and Tess is brand preservation. Timing is everything and nothing kills a career faster than loyalty to a dying format.”
He added that the pair’s decision was best for their own career. It comes after they released a joint statement on Instagram.
Strictly planning ‘big changes’ after Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s exit – The Mirror
Duchess of Sussex says new Netflix deal is ‘sign of strength’ for partnership
The Standard
The Sussexes previously described their latest deal with Netflix, which is also a partner in As Ever, as “extending their creative partnership”.
But PR and crisis expert Mark Borkowski has called it a “downgrade,” and suggested Netflix had “done a very neat job of pivoting away from two very expensive people who didn’t deliver”.
With Love, Meghan first ran on the streaming platform in March this year, with its second season released in August.
Its launch coincided with the unveiling of Meghan’s As Ever brand, with her first products including her raspberry jam, and the flower sprinkles she repeatedly promotes throughout the show.
Fame-hungry Meghan is copying Trump – she’s desperate to make the world obsessed with her, expert slams
The Sun US
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, has just launched her second podcast series last week, named Confessions of a Female Founder.
It follows Meghan talking to her friends who have started their own companies and brands.
The first episode aired on April 8 with an interview of the founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd.
Critics widely panned the first listen saying it offered “no substance” despite it reaching top 19 of Spotify.
Dissecting the podcast, royal expert Mark Borkowski said it’s an attempt to hold on to the spotlight.
Slamming the Duchess he said she is copying Trump in a bid to stay relevant.
Mark said about Meghan’s poorly received podcast: “One could argue that’s a major success because, you know, it keeps her in this sort of public gaze and keeps the global media obsessed about her story.
“Whether it’s the President of the United States or Meghan Markle, it is all about noise now.
“But you know, what are the cut through messages – and I don’t think we’ve seen that with Meghan at the moment because everything seems to be the next thing that’s thrown against the wall hoping it will stick.”
Mark warned that in this day and age, anyone can be famous but it takes a certain skill, which he believes President Trump possesses, to remain in the spotlight.
“Any large personality can generate a huge Instagram following,” he added.
“But how do you stop being boring? What did Trump say? Everybody needs a little crazy.
“The problem is about staying, not just staying at the top but remaining famous, but also dealing with that fame in a highly cruel and critical world.”
SPICE TIMES Staggering Spice Girls wealth gap revealed – from £500m fortune to star forced to live in mum’s bungalow
The Sun
In November, the wealth gap between the girls once again came into the spotlight when Geri derailed a potentially lucrative TV show.
It would have been a dramatised version of the girls’ path to stardom, and they would all net the huge sum for essentially doing nothing.
PR guru Mark Borkowski said at the time: “What it all really boils down to is money and do the people involved in this kind of thing need it.
“And in [that] instance, Geri doesn’t need it. Before that, it was Victoria saying no.
“Things like this always come down to who wants it and who needs the money.”
At their peak, they were thought to have earned around £59.5million per year.
By May 1998, Geri announced she was leaving the group due to depression and differences between the group, just as they were about to embark on a North American tour.
Her departure hit a particularly sore note for Mel B, as the announcement came out on her birthday, without warning.
Mark said: “Behind the scenes, things aren’t always going to be hunky-dory.
“It’s like a family dynamic, people will argue and have that kind of sibling rivalry. Things don’t always go smoothly.”
While the other four carried on for another three years, in 2001, they went on hiatus, insisting it wasn’t a permanent end.
Spice Girls’ net worths at a glance
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/31959719/spice-girls-world-tour-wealth-gap-reunion-feuds/
How Tom Cruise became impossible to dislike (despite his chequered dating history)
The Telegraph
“Cruise isn’t a celebrity in the modern sense,” says Mark Borkowski, a PR guru who specialises in crisis management. “While the rest of Hollywood overshares, he glides above it all with that fixed, high-beam smile and an off-switch for shame. People forget that he’s the final relic of the studio-era illusion, and that he demands absolute control over the narrative, zero oxygen for scandal and a professional polish that suffocates inquiry.”
How Tom Cruise became impossible to dislike (despite his chequered dating history)
Meghan Markle excited by Netflix first-look deal despite ‘downgrade’ claims
The Mirror US
The Duchess also expressed being “grateful” for the “creative partnership” she maintains with Netflix, who collaborate with her alongside her As Ever lifestyle brand. Despite Meghan’s optimism about their new venture with the streaming giant, PR guru Mark Borkowski previously expressed his belief that the first-look deal was a “downgrade” for the couple.
He explained that Netflix had, in his opinion, “done a very neat job of pivoting away from two very expensive people who didn’t deliver.”
The Duke and Duchess also signed significant contracts with Penguin Random House – which published Harry’s explosive memoir Spare – and Spotify back in 2020, the latter of which was estimated to be worth $24 million.
Meghan Markle enjoys star-studded Los Angeles vegan dinner
Daily Mail
Mark Borkowski, arguably the UK’s leading PR guru and crisis manager, told the Daily Mail that Meghan’s photo op blitz in NYC looks desperate – and lacks substance. ‘She is trying her hand to re-enter the global stage without waiting for an invitation. Fashion for the eyeballs, humanitarianism for the legitimacy, Washington for the gravitas. It’s less about proving one thing than layering enough optics to obscure the vacuum underneath’, he said.
Meghan Markle enjoys star-studded Los Angeles vegan dinner | Daily Mail Online
Duchess of Sussex says new TV deal is ‘sign of strength’ despite rumours Netflix is distancing from pair
The Sussexes previously described their latest deal with Netflix, which is also a partner in As Ever, as “extending their creative partnership”.
But PR and crisis expert Mark Borkowski has called it a “downgrade,” and suggested Netflix had “done a very neat job of pivoting away from two very expensive people who didn’t deliver”.
With Love, Meghan first ran on the streaming platform in March this year, with its second season released in August.
Its launch coincided with the unveiling of Meghan’s As Ever brand, with her first products including her raspberry jam, and the flower sprinkles she repeatedly promotes throughout the show.
But the eight-part series, which sees the duchess give hosting tips and cooking with her celebrity friends, was savaged by critics.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/meghan-markle-as-ever-netflix-5HjdFML_2/
Inside Keanu Reeves’ Lasting Appeal: Industry Experts and Insiders Dish on Why He’s So Different (Exclusive)
US Weekly
Reeves is unapologetically offline, and image experts say it works in his favor. “Keanu’s the anti-celebrity celebrity,” says PR agent Mark Borkowski. “In an age when stars are desperate to be liked, he isn’t hustling for approval. He’s not trying to out-meme himself on TikTok or sell you his wellness brand between films.” By not “flogging tequila or NFTs,” adds Borkowski, the star has become “the last great leading man — and the internet’s reluctant saint. He embodies a rare truth about modern celebrity: Success isn’t about screaming the loudest, but knowing when to stay silent.”
Inside Keanu Reeves’ Lasting Appeal: Hollywood Insiders Tell Us Why (Excl) | Us Weekly
Meghan Markle compares herself to the Obamas as she tries to put a positive spin on her Netflix woes… and takes another apparent jab at Royal family
Daily Mail
The Sussexes previously described their latest deal with Netflix, which is also a partner in As Ever, as ‘extending their creative partnership’.
The nature of the deal means Netflix can say yes or no to film or TV projects before anyone else.
But PR and crisis expert Mark Borkowski called it a ‘downgrade,’ and suggested Netflix had ‘done a very neat job of pivoting away from two very expensive people who didn’t deliver’.
The launch of series one of With Love, Meghan in March coincided with the unveiling of her As Ever brand, with her first products including her raspberry jam, and the flower sprinkles she repeatedly promotes throughout the show.
Meghan Markle breaks silence on Netflix ‘downgrade’ and compares herself to Obamas
The Mirror
Despite Meghan’s positivity about the new chapter with the streaming platform, PR expert Mark Borkowski previously said he believed the first-look deal to be a “downgrade” for the couple, explaining that Netflix had, in his view, “done a very neat job of pivoting away from two very expensive people who didn’t deliver”.
Meghan Markle breaks silence on Netflix ‘downgrade’ and compares herself to Obamas – The Mirror
Meghan Markle says her new Netflix partnership is similar to the Obamas’vThe Duchess of Sussex said the new contract gave her and Harry ‘flexibility’
The Independent
Text content
The Sussexes previously described their latest deal with Netflix, which is also a partner in As Ever, as “extending their creative partnership”.
But PR and crisis expert Mark Borkowski has called it a “downgrade,” and suggested Netflix had “done a very neat job of pivoting away from two very expensive people who didn’t deliver”.
With Love, Meghan first ran on the streaming platform in March this year, with its second season released in August.
Its launch coincided with the unveiling of Meghan’s As Ever brand, with her first products including her raspberry jam, and the flower sprinkles she repeatedly promotes throughout the show.
But the eight-part series, which sees the duchess give hosting tips and cooking with her celebrity friends, was savaged by critics.
Is Meghan about to launch ANOTHER business venture? Duchess of Sussex’s PR blitz continues – as experts predict her next move will be in ‘make up or fashion’
Daily Mail Online
Mark Borkowski, arguably the UK’s leading PR guru and crisis manager, told the Daily Mail that Meghan’s photo op blitz in NYC looks desperate – and lacks substance.
‘She is trying her hand to re-enter the global stage without waiting for an invitation. Fashion for the eyeballs, humanitarianism for the legitimacy, Washington for the gravitas. It’s less about proving one thing than layering enough optics to obscure the vacuum underneath’, he said.
Meghan Markle shares ‘incredible’ update after Netflix speculation
OK! Magazine
The Sussexes had previously described their latest agreement with Netflix, which is also a partner in As Ever, as ‘extending their creative partnership’. However, PR and crisis expert Mark Borkowski has labelled it a ‘downgrade’, suggesting Netflix had ‘done a very neat job of pivoting away from two very expensive people who didn’t deliver’.
Meghan Markle shares ‘incredible’ update after Netflix speculation – OK! Magazine