Phillip Schofield: Dancing On Ice changes were '˜essential' to reboot

Professional dancers (left to right) Hamish Gaman, Ale Izquierdo, Sylvain Longchambon, Brandee Malto, Dan Whiston, Vanessa Bauer, Brianne Delcourt, Mark Hanretty, Alex Murphy, Matt Evers, Melody Le Moal and Matej Silecky during the press launch. PIC: PA

Changes include new roles for Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who, instead of choreographing routines and acting as mentors to the contestants, join the judging panel.

Schofield, 55, who is back hosting the ITV show with Holly Willoughby, 36, said: “It’s not a relaunch, or a revamp - it’s fundamentally different to the way we did it before.

“It’s all the things I’ve wanted it to be.”

And he added of the series, which has been off air for four years: “The changes that we’ve made are essential to giving it a reboot.”

This Morning hosts Willoughby and Schofield will be spending even more time together when the show returns, with Cheryl Baker, Kem Cetinay, Donna Air, Antony Cotton, Brooke Vincent and Candice Brown among the skaters.

“The amount of time we spend together is not a consideration; we don’t fall out, we’ve never even had a tiff let alone a row, we just don’t argue,” said Schofield.

Asked about ratings, he added: “I don’t know if we will get 11 million, who can say?

“It depends what’s on the other side, it depends what the weather’s like, it depends how people feel after Christmas.”

Schofield hopes that the Sunday evening show, which starts on January 7 and also features Jason Gardiner and Ashley Banjo on the judging panel, will be more family-friendly by airing earlier in the evening than in previous years.

The one thing he will not be doing is skating himself.

After previous attempts, Schofield joked: “I’d need to be working as hard as the celebs are now, and when do you fit that time in? If you’re going to do it, you want to be really good.”