(Picture: Virgin Radio UK / Channel 4)
Chris Evans’ celebrity talk show, TFI Friday, is returning after over a decade off air and a controversial legacy.
The unfiltered chat show first launched in 1996 and found a home on Channel 4 for several years before being pulled from the air.
Aside from a brief revival in 2015, Chris hasn’t returned to the TFI Friday sofa until now, with the show making its comeback on Virgin Radio UK’s YouTube channel last Friday.
The original run found itself subject to backlash in recent years after a resurfaced clip showed the DJ and presenter, 59, grilling Spice Girls icon Victoria Beckham over her weight shortly after she gave birth.
The shocking interaction happened in May 1999, just two months after the birth of Victoria and now-husband David Beckham’s eldest son, Brooklyn Beckham, was born.
Appearing on the show, Chris asked Victoria if her weight was ‘back to normal’ to which she said ‘yes’. He then pulled a weighing scale out from his desk, asking if they could ‘check’.
In July 2022, Victoria addressed the moment in a Vogue interview, reflecting: ‘He made me stand on the scales to be weighed. Can you imagine doing that nowadays.’
Then, after her Netflix documentary came out in October 2025, she recalled on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast: ‘I mean, it was so humiliating. David was there.
‘He was in the audience and the camera shifts to him and he looks a little horrified as well. Um, but back in the day those things were acceptable.’
She continued: ‘We didn’t know as much about food in the 90s – I was terrified to eat any fat. I lost all sense of reality eating disorder – consuming, tiring, it takes over.’
The clip regularly resurfaces online, with viewers sharing their horror at the interaction. ‘Terrible. I actually remember watching that and I was dying inside,’ TikTok user Claire commented.
More widely, the series wasn’t without its controversies. One competition to win a car for their parents put two children head-to-head in a staring contest, which ended in tears and outcry from viewers.
As well as Victoria, the first and second run of the show also saw him interview guests such as Ewan McGregor, U2 and Saoirse Ronan, to name a few.
On Friday, February 6, the revamped version of the star-studded series, TFI Unplugged, launched almost 30 years after the very first episode. Oscar-nominated Sinners actor Delroy Lindo appeared on the episode.
Comedian Ross Noble and band James, fronted by Tim Booth, also made special appearances in the inaugural episode.
The TV and radio personality, also known for presenting the rebooted Top Gear, is hoping to stick around for a long time, as he shared on his own Virgin Radio breakfast show on Monday.
Returning alongside original executive producers, Clare Barton and Suzie Aplin, he reflected: ‘How much juice do we have left in the tank? Well, hang on a minute.
‘When Rod Stewart came on TFI Friday he was only four years younger than I am now, so it’s all going to be fine.’
He shared: ‘Paul McCartney came on TFI again when he was just a few years younger than I am. Now he’s 83, Paul McCartney.
‘So listen, we’ve got plenty of road still to run here before we run out of road. That’s what I’m saying to myself.’
TFI Friday will land on Virgin UK Radio’s YouTube channel every Friday.
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