The This Morning presenter is gearing up to front his new ITV quiz series Babushka next week, which will replace The Chase for a month while Bradley Walsh’s enormously popular show takes break.
However, devoted followers of the tea-time favourite were furious at the prospect of four weeks without Bradley, 56, and his Chasers, and vented their rage at Rylan, 28.
“I was getting tweets saying, ‘I can’t believe The Chase has been axed for you, Bradley Walsh is amazing, Rylan you’re this’, and then I’ve had people going, ‘I can’t believe you’re the new presenter of The Chase’,” he sighed on today’s Loose Women.
“It’s a new Chinese whispers that got completely out of control and ultimately I’ve come off Twitter purely because of that.
“It’s not because I can’t handle it but because I felt like I had gone back five years, when I was out there to be judged on The X Factor and I don’t need that, the homophobia, I don’t need that in my life.
He added: “I’ve come off Twitter because the show is not about me, it’s not about me in the slightest, I’m just the host and I’m going to let the show go on air and people can make their mind up and then I will go back on Twitter because then the show speaks for itself.”
Chaser Anne Hegerty recently assured viewers that The Chase would be back on screens in no time.
The 58-year-old tweeted: “Sigh. No. We are off for the month of May ONLY, to give Rylan’s show some airtime. Then we are back.
“Only replacing it for A MONTH, guys. We’re not going anywhere, we’re just having a little rest. Filming again in June.”
Explaining how fans can catch up with The Chase during its on screen absence, she teased: “You’ll just have to watch old eps on YouTube until we come back in June.”
Babushka stars Monday at 5pm on ITV, while The Chase returns next month at the same time on the same channel.
Daily Express :: TV and Radio Feed
