Michelle Keegan is favourite to replace Holly Willoughby on Celebrity Juice, after the star quit after 12 years on the show.
The Our Girl actress, 32, is hotly tipped to step into Holly’s shoes as a team captain after the This Morning host, 39, leaves at the end of the series.
Michelle is among a number of names thrown into the hat as bookies place odds on who will join Keith Lemon, 47, on the ITV2 comedy panel show.
Hotly tipped: Michelle Keegan is favourite to replace Holly Willoughby on Celebrity Juice, after the star quit after 12 years on the show
Bookmakers Ladbrokes have placed odds of 4/1 on Michelle bagging the coveted job.
The brunette beauty recently left her lead role as army medic Georgie Lane in Our Girl, so the timing would be perfect for her to step up.
Alex Apati of Ladbrokes told Mirror Online: ‘Michelle Keegan’s no stranger to Celebrity Juice and she could soon become a permanent fixture if the latest odds are anything to go by.’
Departing: The Our Girl actress, 32, is hotly tipped to step into Holly’s shoes as a team captain after the This Morning host, 39, leaves at the end of the series
Meanwhile, other stars considered for the role include Scarlett Moffatt at 9/2, while Ferne Cotton is in the running to return to the job she left in 2018, with odds of 5/1.
Gemma Collins, Eammon Holmes, Emma Bunton, Rylan Clark-Neal and Kelly Brook are other names in the running.
MailOnline have contacted representatives of ITV2 for comment.
It was revealed on Sunday that Holy had quit Celebrity Juice – the show that helped make her a household name – after 12 years.
Good timing: The brunette beauty recently left her lead role as army medic Georgie Lane in Our Girl, so the timing would be perfect for her to step up
Tipped: Meanwhile, other stars considered for the role include Scarlett Moffatt at 9/2, while Ferne Cotton is in the running to return to the job she left in 2018, with odds of 5/1
The presenter will end her reign as a team captain on the award-winning panel show at the end of the current series.
Insiders say the decision comes as a blow to programming chiefs, who have long relied on her star quality to attract viewers.
Although Miss Willoughby had worked in television for several years before Celebrity Juice, landing the role on the show in 2008 helped make her TV hot property.
Moving on: Holly quit ITV’s Celebrity Juice after 12 years starring as a team captain alongside Paddy McGuinness and host Keith Lemon
She joined This Morning a year later and still hosts the show with Phillip Schofield. Celebrity Juice is also where the term ‘Holly Willoughbooby’ was coined to described her curvaceous figure.
Her resignation comes shortly after her husband Dan Baldwin – one of Celebrity Juice’s creators – stopped producing the ITV2 show.
The mother of three’s departure now throws the future of the series into doubt after its host Keith Lemon, the comic alter-ego of Leigh Francis, said it would be over if she quit.
Big job: Holly joined This Morning a year after starting Celebrity Juice and still hosts the chat show with co-host Phillip Schofield
A friend of Miss Willoughby told The Mail on Sunday: ‘She absolutely loves being on the show, she has loved it but she felt it was time now.
‘She wants to spend more time with her family, filming Celebrity Juice takes up an evening that she could be spending with her family.
‘She is, after all, one of the busiest women in showbiz.’
Yesterday, Francis paid tribute to Miss Willoughby on Instagram under his guise as Keith Lemon, saying: ‘Love this woman. What an incredible sport. Always willing to get her hands dirty and join in. One of the boys but all woman.’ A spokesman for Miss Willoughby last night declined to comment.