Inside Dermot O'Leary's new show Silence is Golden – which left him frustrated and filming lasting hours over blunder

The Sun

04-05-2025

DERMOT O'Leary's brand new show is worlds away from This Morning's iconic sofa or The X Factor.
The telly favourite, 51, recorded his brand new game show Silence Is Golden last year.
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Dermot hosts as the audience have one simple task - remain absolutely silent.
Each participant is mic'ed up while they're seated with highly-sensitive tech that can pick up even the faintest peep.
Throughout the show, a series of well-known comedians appear on stage, hoping to leave the audience in fits of laughter with their jokes - and the £250,000 jackpot prize at zero.
Dermot filmed the U&Dave series last July, in the midst of hosting This Morning's summer edition with Alison Hammond.
Six episodes of the new show were recorded, each 60-minutes in duration and kick off on Monday, May 5th.
Before the episodes were filmed, a pilot was recorded as a test run.
The run-through was plagued with technical issues, leaving bosses scrambling behind-the-scenes.
Each participant had to wear a rather uncomfortable headset microphone, which felt more like a metal hanger on your head.
I know because I sat in the audience at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, watching it all unfold.
As the show got underway, an adjudicator would sit and monitor noise levels from each mic during each individual performance from the funny faces.
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It would then be decided how many decibels were recorded and what cash would dwindle as a result.
The sensitivity issues with the mics left the crew visibly frustrated, and some frowns in the audience as the segments had to be restarted.
During the first part of the night, a large chunk of the prize pot had been wiped out over apparent fails, which were disputed by crew and the audience.
Even Dermot O'Leary looked like his patience was wearing thin at times, though after almost three decades in telly, was ever the pro and continued with the pilot.
After what felt like a 24-hour marathon, the show eventually got on the road and things started to run smoothly, apart from the irritating metal contraption keeping my microphone in place.
Each episode of Silence is Golden will feature three returning celebrity captains - Katherine Ryan, Seann Walsh and Fatiha El-Ghorri.
The show is natural laugh-out-loud comedy and great fun, and Dermot's energy and warmth takes it to a new level.