Ben Shephard has told fans of his sadness over one of the strict rules in place as filming starts on new episodes of Tipping Point.
The ITV quiz show is on screen every day and has been for much of the past 12 months, despite the coronavirus pandemic putting a halt to production, and soon we'll be able to see some new episodes as Ben has revealed that new ones will start to air on April 12.
He confirmed the new shows as he uploaded a behind the scenes video to his Twitter, in which he teased some of what was to come in the shows already filmed, including a double jackpot as well as a "double, double drop that has never happened before."
Ben then captioned the video: "Ahhh my home from home for the next 4 months -175 eps to film, hundreds of contestants to meet thousands of pounds to be won!"
Ben's many social media followers were quick to respond to the tweet and he answered many of them back, a few which related to whether he was allowed to hug contestants.
Prior to COVID-19, Ben was famous for going in for a cuddle to congratulate or commiserate quiz hopefuls but, due to social distancing restrictions, he hasn't been allowed to do that on episodes filmed since the first lockdown last year.
And he revealed that the same rule remains. One fan told him: "You seem so sweet!!!! I call you huggy boy. Looking forward to new series," to which the 46-year-old replied: "Sadly still no hugs."
Reacting to Ben's teaser of double jackpots, another follower replied: "You’ll have sore shoulders after all them jackpot hugs!" but Ben answered: "No hugs for a while sadly."
A third Twitter user, Andrea, posted: "How will you cope without the hugs," to which Ben responded: "’I'm not Andrea," with an upset emoji.
