Today with Des and Mel
Today with Des and Mel was a British television series hosted by Des O'Connor and Melanie Sykes. The show featured celebrity guests, phone-in competitions and chat between the hosts. It was produced by Carlton Television, at The London Studios. The show was previously produced at Teddington Studios for the first series.
| Today with Des and Mel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Talk show |
| Presented by | Des O'Connor Melanie Sykes |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Producers | Carlton Television (2002–04) Granada Productions (2004–06) ITV Productions (2006) |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Original release | 30 September 2002 – 2006 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | The Paul O'Grady Show |
Today with Des and Mel was loosely based on the format of the popular American television show, Live with Regis and Kelly.
Although the filming pattern varied, for much of the show's run, Monday's, Tuesday's and Wednesday's programmes were recorded 'as live' very shortly before start of transmission (typically being recorded about half an hour prior), whereas Thursday's and Friday's episodes were generally pre-recorded in a separate block on Wednesdays.
The series pulled in very high ratings for its daytime slot, and as a result at one stage, the show was given the green-light for an evening version to be made. For a short time in January 2005, the show appeared in a 5 p.m. slot, but this was soon dropped, and a full prime-time version never came about.
ITV announced on 12 May 2006, that the show had been axed.
Guest presenters
Paul O'Grady was a regular guest presenter, with ITV bosses being so impressed with his performance, that they gave him his own show - The Paul O'Grady Show (the show later moved to Channel 4 from 2006 to 2009 before returning to ITV in 2013). Dale Winton, Bradley Walsh and Richard Whiteley also covered for Des on occasion. Jenny Powell – who contributed a regular Friday feature describing various tasks for the show that she had undertaken that week, that was dropped a while into the show's run – occasionally covered for Mel.
On 3 November 2008 and Wednesday 8 April 2009, both Des and Mel filled in as guest hosts on The Paul O'Grady Show whilst Paul had time off. O'Grady had requested their use in this capacity as he felt indebted to the pair for playing a role in him being awarded his own show.