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Your support makes all the difference.Another diving competition?
As with most of the news stories about Daley these days, world-class diving alongside the likes of David Boudia and Qiu Bo is off the cards. Instead, it was announced yesterday that the 18-year-old Olympic bronze medallist will front a primetime ITV show called Splash!
Were that exclamation mark not ominous enough, it was revealed that celebrities will compete against each other as they try to get a perfect score with the help of professional coaches. They will dive in front of a panel of judges, and the public will vote for their favourites.
"2012 has been a wonderful year for me – an Olympic medal and double gold at the Junior World Champs," said Daley. "What better way to round it off than by becoming involved in this great new show; a dream come true for me – an entertainment show all about diving. I'll be helping the celebrities as they master a dangerous and exciting sport and I can't wait to get started."
Or how about getting back to hard training?
It's difficult to imagine Daley's Chinese rivals abandoning the rigour of their training schedule for some celebrity fluff, but the British diver has made no secret of his TV ambitions.
Some might question where he will find time to film the show between posting pictures of his naked torso on Twitter and taking part in an endless carnival of magazine shoots. His extracurricular activities even extend to partying with One Direction and Conor Maynard in Mayfair haunts like Mahiki and Funky Buddha. But Daley managed to grab top A level grades just before competing in London, so who are we to judge? What is worrying, however, is that this new show looks a bit low-rent.
Less Strictly and more The Games?
During the Olympics, Cheryl Cole tweeted Tom Daley asking for a diving lesson, but you suspect she'll be a bit too high profile for this programme. After all, not every celebrity looks as good with their kit off as Daley – so they'll either need to be paid an astronomical fee or simply be desperate for airtime.
The original Dutch version of the show looks like a less entertaining version of Hole in the Wall, and the last time we saw non-professional diving on television was when Bobby Davro and stars with a similar level of global renown belly-flopped on Channel 4's The Games.
Still, Daley's fans will tune in – and there are lots of them. He's currently in third place in this year's calendar sales chart behind fellow tween favourites One Direction and Justin Bieber.
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