Hoping for the best, Charlene had earlier tweeted: “We’ve got a cat live in the studio with me later… I’m not a huge cat fan. So this will be interesting. See you for @itvlondon NOW!”
Unfortunately for the 36-year-old journalist, while she was speaking to a vet and a cat owner about obesity among pets on live air, things got a little out of hand.
Viewers watched as the cat went rogue and wandered across the desk as Charlene tried to keep her composure.
Giggling as Sammy the cat then hid under the desk in the green screen studio, Charlene said: “Oh, now Sammy’s coming to hang out with me, there will be more tips after the show, oh gosh, he’s now disappeared underneath the desk. I think I might have lost the cat somehow!”
Quickly cutting to another segment of the show, the ITV production team attempted to entice the cat out as ailurophobic Charlene waited to resume reading the news.
Taking to Twitter, Charlene posted a picture of the mayhem, asking her 20,000 followers: “How many @itvlondon employees does it take to free Sammy the cat from underneath the newsdesk DURING THE LIVE PROGRAMME?”
The newsreader later tweeted a snap of the cat once again caged, saying: “For all those asking, it took 6 of us, but we finally managed to free Sammy the Cat from underneath the @itvlondon desk. He’s safe & sound!”
Charlene added: “I was worried it was gonna hurt himself!! There’s tonnes of wires under there.
“If there’s one thing I can guarantee will never happen is a cat on my lap. I don’t even go anywhere near my dad’s cat!
“It’s fair to say I’m not a cat person and it freaked me out a bit. So after all that palava am I now a cat person? Er… no,” before one fan joked that you should never work with children or animals in the TV industry.
“For some reason our team keeps forgetting that old adage,” continued Charlene.
ITV News London continues daily at 6pm, followed by the ITV Evening News at 6:30pm.
Daily Express :: TV and Radio Feed
