ITV bosses have heralded former Love Islander Olivia Attwood as one of the channels’ “faces of the future” – and even claimed she is “the new Cilla Black.”
At the Edinburgh TV Festival, head of Reality TV and ITV2, Paul Mortimer, was discussing new talent they had high hopes for over the coming months.
And he picked out Olivia, 32, as the perfect example of someone who they had their eye on.
He said: “She was one of the standout Love Islanders a few years ago and has gone on, via Towie and her own reality show and some brilliant immersive docs.
“She, I would vouch, is the face of the future.
“She’s a great talent who is being nurtured by ITV and working her way slowly through the ranks.
“Inevitably I believe she will be the new Cilla Black.”
Olivia has managed to carve out an impressive career with the network after reaching the 2017 final of Love Island with former partner, Chris Hughes.
Within months of leaving Majorca, the pair landed an ITVBe reality series entitled Chris & Olivia: Crackin’ On.
Having gone their separate ways, Olivia reunited with her former beau, footballer Bradley Dack, and began appearing on ITV reality heavyweight The Only Way is Essex.
It has been over the last 12 months that the star’s career has skyrocketed thanks to her own reality series, Olivia Meets Her Match, which in turn sparked its own wedding spin-off capturing her nuptials to Brad.
She also began fronting her documentary, Getting Filthy Rich, which instantly landed a second series and put Olivia as a true rival to her BBC counterpart Stacey Dooley.
A stint in the I’m A Celebrity jungle was expected to propel the star to A-list status but she was forced to quit after just 24 hours as a result of medical issues.
Nonetheless, the blonde beauty recently appeared as a guest panellist on Loose Women as well as expressing her hopes of continuing in her TV career.
Rivalling Cilla Black is a career that many women in TV can only dream of with Holly Willoughby and Emma Willis coming close.
It’s safe to say that it appears things are only going one way for former grid girl Olivia and that is up.
