Rumours of big-money deal to jump ship

Could Harry Hill’s contract with ITV be up for grabs, by any chance?

Today’s Sun newspaper reports that he is ‘set to quit’ the channel after Sky offered to double his salary – and the entire budget of TV Burp – were he to jump ship.

And call us cynics, but rumours like that certainly won’t do him any harm if he’s seeking a renewed deal with ITV, which may be short of cash but is even shorter of hit shows.

Around this time last year, stories appeared in the media saying the BBC were set to lure Hill with a multi-million pound deal, but nothing ever came of it.

TV production company Avalon – whose management arm also represents Hill - currently makes the show for just over £200,000 an episode. For that, ITV1 gets ratings of up to an impressive eight million viewers.

A conveniently unnamed source close to the star said: ‘Sky have tried to get Harry twice before and it looks like it could be third time lucky.

‘He could end up earning £80,000 an episode. It's extremely tempting. Sky are telling Harry they'd turn him into one of the faces of the channel.’

However, when Harry Enfield moved to Sky for big money in 2000, the resulting show was perceived to be a disappointment, and damaged his career.

This time might be different as Sky have recently poached BBC commissioner Lucy Lumsden to be their new head of comedy, as they make a new, concerted effort to make an impact in the genre.

Published: 22 Jul 2009