Richard Madeley shares biggest regret in career that led to him being 'slaughtered'
Richard Madeley says: 'It was the biggest regret of my entire career because it made us look stupid'
What did you miss?
Richard Madeley has revealed his biggest regret was interviewing OJ Simpson for 12 minutes with his wife Judy, saying: "It was the biggest regret of my entire career because it made us look stupid."
TV couple Richard and Judy reflected on the televised interview in a new Channel 5 documentary Richard and Judy: Our Best Bits - In Our Own Words that aired this weekend. They were the first to secure an interview with the former American football star after his 1996 trial for ITV show called Tonight with Richard and Judy.
Simpson, who recently died, was famously acquitted of the double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1996. Although later in a civil lawsuit, Simpson was found liable for the deaths.
During Our Best Bits, Richard candidly confessed he would refuse to do the OJ Simpson interview today if he knew he was only getting 12 minutes. "It was ridiculous," he said. "We should have refused to do the show."
What, how and why?
The TV couple explained how the interview had come about for the new show and why ITV bosses had asked for them to cover two interviews on the programme, despite landing such a big scoop with Simpson who could have easily filled the whole time.
Judy explained: "One of the producers had got the interview with OJ Simpson. It was huge, the first interview he had given. ITV insisted because it was first show and we were setting out, we had to have more than one item on it. We had to have Neil Diamond."
Read more
The One Show viewers think Richard Madeley just gave away his entire book plot
'I have one warning about The Night Caller - don't watch the trailer first'
Looking back now, Richard said he would have refused to do the show if it had happened today because interviewing Simpson in 12 minutes was an "impossible" task. He went on saying: "We should have stood our ground."
He elaborated: "We wanted to do the full show with OJ Simpson, as did our production team. In the middle of the day of transmission, we get an order from the then boss of ITV who decided it was too much to give someone of a controversial figure like OJ Simpson half an hour of ITV air time and insisted we do two interviews. Another one with Neil Diamond.
"Now I have to say, if that happens to me today, I would have said I’m not doing the show. It’s impossible to do OJ Simpson at that stage in 12 minutes which was what we ended up with. Twelve minutes, it was ridiculous. We should have refused to do the show. We should have stood our ground. But it was the first of a new series, there was a lot riding on it, we had a big team, we reluctantly agreed."
Richard and Judy were 'slaughtered' for OJ Simpson interview
The Channel 5 documentary cut between the couple and the archive footage of the interview. Richard said he had thought the interview was "going well" and that Simpson had started to "wobble a bit" with "beads of sweat on his top lip".
The couple hinted they wanted to return from the advert break to interview Simpson but this didn't happen. "There was no guidance at all, just silence," Judy said, looking back at what happened. "That's what I remember. They really lost their bottle."
Reflecting, Richard said they were both "slaughtered" following the 12-minute chat because they returned from the TV break to interview singer Neil Diamond. To this day, it remains his biggest professional regret.
He said: "We were slaughtered for it weren’t we, the next day. Absolutely slaughtered for it. It is the biggest professional regret of my entire career because it made us look stupid. Going to a commercial break and coming back with a singer."
Watch Richard and Judy: Our Best Bits - In Our Own Words on Channel 5 streaming now.
