‘People will actually sleep’: How Claudia Winkleman faces the biggest week of her TV career | television

‘T“They gave me a talk show,” Claudia Winkleman says in the trailer. “Agreed, wrong. It might hurt.” This sarcastic self-deprecation continued into the official announcement. “Obviously I would be terrible,” she said. “This goes without saying, but I’m thrilled that the BBC has allowed me to try.”

Friday the 13th – Lucky for viewers? The 54-year-old hosts the inaugural edition of the chat show that bears her name. The Claudia Winkleman Show may not have the most exciting title, but it represents a quietly revolutionary moment in television. It also makes this the biggest week of the presenters’ careers. There is no pressure.

As the tanned, teak face of two landmark BBC franchises, The Traitors and Strictly Come Dancing, Winkleman has established herself as a key presenter on prime-time television. Now, our top-rated host has ousted Ant and Dec after their 24-year reign. However, this week’s launch is next level. For the first time, her name is above the door. She rides high. Can she continue her hot streak?

She couldn’t have had a better warm-up. Last weekend, Winkleman was a surprise addition to Channel 4’s Crufts coverage. At the Birmingham NEC for the world’s biggest dog show, the crazy presenter was in her element. She helped care for a black spaniel whose long, silky ears made her resemble Winkleman herself with a raven mane. She threatened to French-kiss a sweet dog, promised chicken and gravy dinners for her favorite dogs, and even lent her special “dog voice” to the arrogant King Charles Spaniel. “I’ll never leave. This is true paradise,” Winkleman declared, holding a litter of puppies on her lap.

Her on-screen relationship with tough Crufts star Claire Balding recalled her decade-long pairing with Tess Daly on Strictly Come Dancing, where the sportscaster plays the sick older sister to Winkleman’s chaotic younger brother. She has caused chaos for dogs by joining a golden retriever show team. When Leigh Cox – the show’s best champion Bruin spaniel – accidentally apologized to Winkleman’s face with the microphone during an emotional live interview, she reassured him: “I enjoyed it.”

Her highly entertaining contribution helped Crufts gain ratings of 1.5 million and an audience share equal to double the Channel 4 Sunday average. Winkleman signed off by saying, “I had the best day of my life. I absolutely loved my wedding but this is even better.” (Speaking of marriage, she previously proposed to a wire-haired dachshund named Cecile.)

Now it’s time for a higher level car. Her first talk show concludes a busy week for the versatile, genre-hopping broadcaster – she is also filming the next series of talent search show The Piano at railway stations across the country – and marks the start of her post-Strictly chapter. Move over Wogan and Wossy. Here’s Winkle. As Richard Osman says on this week’s The Rest Is Entertainment: “This is definitely the right idea at the right time with the right person.”

The series is produced by So Television, the company behind The Graham Norton Show, and airs on the same Friday at 10.40pm. Winkleman calls Norton “the best ever. Being in the same place is a complete privilege and also completely nerve-racking.” She cites Celebrity Traitors alumni Jonathan Ross and Alan Carr as other influences (“I’ve never missed a chatty man”), along with US late-night host Chelsea Handler (“I actually like her”). It sounds promising — and refreshingly different from the old Leno/Letterman name checks thrown out by male hopefuls.

The display lineup feels more muted, upscale and clubby than those of its rivals. An after-hours salon is more than just a showroom with a shiny floor. The first guests on her green velvet sofa are Hollywood actors Jeff Goldblum and Vanessa Williams, comedian Tom Allen and all-rounder Jennifer Saunders. The bill is a bit weak, but word is that pre-registration was a riot. We promised a lively conversation with the help of a lively studio audience. As Winkelmann says, “I imagine I’ll ask guests about their favorite cookie and their dog, and people will actually fall asleep.”

Winkleman is an engaging and sympathetic interviewer who has shown an easy, breezy charm when questioning celebrities, whether it’s on her Radio 2 show Strictly or when she stood alongside Norton for one episode last year. She opened this show by saying: “I’m so sorry Graham isn’t here tonight. No one is angrier than me.”

As a Cambridge graduate, she is very bright but dresses lightly and remains completely relatable. She is highly intelligent but has a low ego, which means she knows when to get out of the way and let others shine. She is warm and intelligent with a sparkling charisma, and her natural curiosity means she asks inquisitive questions. With her professional training as a roving reporter and 34 years of working her way to the top, she has the ability to embrace the free-wheeling, spontaneous moments that make talk shows gold and go viral. Imitating her trademark double-dipped tan, the trailers saw her stirring a pot of tangerine-colored paint (she described herself as a “little orange with a fringe”).

Without much fanfare, Friday night marks a historic television moment. In a genre of programming still dominated by middle-aged white men in suits, female anchors are often stuck with the daytime fluff. Not a woman has moderated a UK prime-time talk show since the 2000s, when Davina McCall, Charlotte Church and Lily Allen all had short-lived stabs. When Emma Thompson played talk show host on Mindy Kaling’s late-night comedy, she joked that this was “basically sci-fi.”

Winkleman may have the public’s goodwill behind her, but as expected, knives will be launched in certain places. The production company and time period will inevitably invite comparisons to Norton. However, Winckelmann has so far proven immune to criticism. She’s philosophical enough to shrug it off, while her usual modesty means she probably got there first with any self-mockery anyway. For every Sonic hater, there are hundreds who love it. Plus, it certainly couldn’t be worse than her first chat show experience, which recently went viral again. “In my early 20s, I talked about how to flirt on the couch on Good Morning with Anne & Nick,” she recalls. “It was chronic.”

Since then, everything she touched has turned a shade of BAFTA gold. Even the shocking decision she made last fall to resign from Strictly went smoothly, in part because of her enormous post-Traitors popularity. After you have recorded a series of decisive evaluations and results, the decisive time has come. In five nights, I went from the Crufts viewing ring to the chat show sofa. Will she now take her rightful place as the shiny-edged empress of Friday nights? If anyone can pull it off, Claude can.