Ben Shephard



Benjamin Peter "Ben" Shephard (born 11 December 1974) is an English television presenter and journalist who is currently employed by both ITV and Sky Sports. His most recognised role was as a main presenter on the now defunct breakfast station GMTV, although since then he has hosted game shows such as The Krypton Factor, 1 vs. 100, Safebreakers and Tipping Point. On 3 March 2014 ITV announced that Shephard would return to breakfast television to host their new breakfast show Good Morning Britain.

During his time at GMTV, Ben also presented large talent show-based programmes. He co-hosted Soapstar Superstar with Fern Britton in 2006. He then went on to present new talent show called DanceX for BBC One in the summer of 2007. After presenting DanceX he then presented karaoke style game show Who Dares, Sings! alongside Denise van Outen.

Since his departure from GMTV he has also presented Channel 4 daytime cookery programme What's Cooking? and has been a stand-in presenter on ITV the lifestyle show This Morning. Ben has presented several ITV2 spin-off shows including The Xtra Factor and has co-hosted Dancing on Ice Friday with Coleen Nolan and Dancing on Ice Exclusive with Andrea McLean.

Ben has hosted Goals on Sunday alongside Chris Kamara on Sky Sports on Sunday Mornings. He also hosts UEFA Champions League and League Cup matches for them (the former of the two he will no longer do once BT Sports takes over from Sky Sports).

Away from his television work, Ben supports several charities and takes part in many physical challenges to support various charitable organisations. He is the current holder for two Guinness World Records.

Channel 4
Ben's career took off in 1998, when he began hosting the Channel 4 spin-off show The Bigger Breakfast, which he co-presented alongside fellow presenters including Josie D'Arby, Melanie Sykes and Dermot O'Leary. In the same year Ben became the first presenter of T4's teen strand on Channel 4. The strand launched on 25 October 1998.

ITV Breakfast
Ben joined the long-running ITV Breakfast programme GMTV in 2000 where he presented several shows including Entertainment Today, GMTV Today and GMTV, where he spent most of his time in the studio presenting the show with either Emma Crosby, Penny Smith, Lorraine Kelly or Kate Garraway.

On 30 June 2010, he announced his departure from GMTV two months earlier than planned in order to spend time with his family and take part in more charity work, and in the September of 2010 GMTV closed down due to the launch of the new breakfast programme Daybreak, Ben presented his final GMTV episode on 30 July 2010.

On 3 March 2014, it was announced Shephard would become a presenter on the new ITV Breakfast programme Good Morning Britain, which he will co-host alongside Susanna Reid, replacing Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly. This makes him the only ITV Breakfast presenter to return, four years after quitting ITV Breakfast.

The Xtra Factor
For the first three series between 2004 and 2006, Ben presented the ITV2 spin-off series The Xtra Factor, whilst Kate Thornton hosted the main show on ITV1 (now ITV). Whilst hosting the show, Shephard also starred in The Xtra Factor – Battle of the Stars. He was replaced in 2007 by radio and television presenter Fearne Cotton.

Sky Sports
On 27 July, Ben announced that he had signed a new contract with Sky Sports, where he currently works on live football and co-presents Goals On Sunday alongside Chris Kamara in a deal worth a reported £495,000 a year. He has also gone on to host live secondary match coverage of the UEFA Champions League on Sky Sports 3 or 4, while the main coverage on Sky Sports 1 is hosted by Jeff Stelling. He is also the main anchor for Sky Sports coverage of the League Cup.

On 3 March 2014, Ben announced on his official website that he would only be doing Goals on Sunday for Sky Sports as of 27 April 2014; however, it's yet to be seen after the said date whether or not he'll carry on doing the League Cup or The Champions League for one more season. Either way, Ben's Sky Sports duties will be cut by seventy to eighty percent due to his work at Good Morning Britain.

If Ben is still working with Sky Sports in 2015, he will only be doing Goals on Sunday after both Sky Sports and ITV have lost the right to air the Champions League to BT Sport.

Entertainment shows
In 2006, Ben co-presented reality singing contest Soapstar Superstar alongside Fern Britton on ITV. The show returned the following year in 2007, without Shephard as the host.

On 14 July 2007, Ben presented the first of seven episodes of the BBC One entertainment series DanceX with the Strictly Come Dancing judges Arlene Phillips and Bruno Tonioli on the panel. DanceX finished airing on 25 August of the same year and has not returned since.

In 2008, Ben returned to ITV to co-present Who Dares, Sings! with Denise van Outen. The series received reasonable viewing figures, achieving an average of 3.58 million viewers.

Shephard has hosted two music specials on ITV, celebrating some of Britain's best loved musicians. These shows were Rod Stewart: One Night Only, which aired on 5 December 2009 and Phil Collins: One Night Only, which was aired the following year on 18 September 2010.

Game shows


Between 2008 and 2009, Ben presented the National Lottery game show 1 vs. 100, when he took over from Dermot O'Leary.

In 2009, ITV decided to revive the original classic game show The Krypton Factor for a new series. Ben was chosen to present the revived series, which lasted for ten episodes and aired in an early Tuesday night slot. Following the success of the first revived series, Shephard was asked to present a second, also consisting of ten episodes. The second revived series ended on 9 March 2010, which has not returned to ITV since.

In the summer of 2011, Shephard fronted an eight-part game show for Sky1 called Safebreakers, there has been no more episodes of the show since then.

Ben currently presents the ITV game show Tipping Point and has done so since the show began in 2012. He also hosts the celebrity version known as Tipping Point: Lucky Stars which began on 9 June 2013.

Daytime shows
Between 2005 and 2011 (and sometime in the future), Ben was a stand-in presenter for the ITV daytime lifestyle programme This Morning, covering mainly for regular presenter Phillip Schofield.

A brand new cookery programme known as What's Cooking? launched on Channel 4 in 2013. Ben hosted 65 episodes of the programme alongside actress Lisa Faulkner. After the end of the first series, Ben had announced via Twitter on 11 September 2013 (and again on 22 January 2014 ) that he will not be returning to the show.

Other work
During the London 2012 Olympics, Shephard acted as a stadium commentator, introducing the action in the main arena and interviewing guests such as Patrick Stewart.

In 2009, Shephard starred in an episode of Bookaboo on CITV.

Since 2013, Ben has been the face of Warburtons lunch thins.

Ben co-presented two episodes of the factual ITV factual series Mystery Map with Julia Bradbury, the series aired for two episodes on 20 November 2013 and 27 November 2013 respectively.

Guinness World Records

 * Highest Reverse Bungee Jump (3 October 2008)
 * Tossing the Most Pancakes in one minute (23 February 2009): Ben was beaten the following day by Aldo Zilli
 * The Most pumpkins smashed in one minute (29 October 2010)

Ben claimed that Guinness World Records were not interested when he wanted to break the World Record for "The most Egg Yolks Separated from Egg Whites Using a Bottle in 30 seconds".

Charity
Ben supports several charities including the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Haven House Children's Hospice and the Holly Lodge Centre. To help raise funds for these charities Ben takes part in many extreme physical challenges.

Since the year 2000, Ben has completed 14 marathons.

Ben also spent a long time and become good friends with 12 year-old Harry Moseley, who had supported Cancer Research UK for many years, despite suffering from brain cancer himself. Harry dedicated a lot of his time to help others who had cancer and with the help of Ben has been able to help more people beat cancer. In September 2011, Harry Moseley died but Ben remains involved with Harry's family and is now an ambassador for the Help Harry Help Others campaign in his memory.

In 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012, Ben played for England in Soccer Aid which aired live on ITV. Fellow players included Robbie Williams, Bradley Walsh, Ralf Little and Paddy McGuinness. These events helped to raise money for Unicef.

One of Ben's charity challenges was when he boxed against Lemar for Sport Relief. After training with Ricky Hatton and Andy Mayo at Mayo's Gym, he won by decision after 3 rounds.

Another of Ben's charity challenges took place in early 2009 when Ben, along with eight other well-known celebrities climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Comic Relief. Joining him on the climb were Cheryl Cole, Kimberley Walsh, Fearne Cotton, Gary Barlow, Alesha Dixon, Ronan Keating, Denise van Outen and Chris Moyles.

In 2010, Ben and his friend Ivan ran the Coast-to-Coast Challenge, raising over £120,000 for the Children's Heart Unit Fund at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne. The run was 145 miles long and took them five days.

In March 2011, Ben Shephard designed blue and black striped hipsters (underpants) for charity to help raise awareness of Prostate Cancer.

On 13 January 2014, Ben Shephard joined his friend Ivan and burned ten thousand calories for the charity Seb4Chuf. However, despite this, Ben had warned his Twitter followers that if he picked up any injuries in the process, he might not be able to take part in 2014's Soccer Aid.

Personal life
Shephard attended Chigwell School in Essex, and went on to achieve a 2:1 BA Hons degree from the University of Birmingham in Dance, Drama & Theatre Arts. A West Ham United supporter, he has also received honours in both rugby and football.

He married Annie Shephard (née Perks) on 25 March 2004. The couple have two sons.