£5m O'Grady wins teatime tussle

The rivalry between them has been hotter than a teatime cuppa.

As Richard and Judy have held court at Channel Four, Paul O'Grady has built his own following on ITV.

But yesterday the presenter formerly known as Lily Savage was declared the £5million winner when Channel 4 poached him to muscle in on the husband-and-wife team's territory.

O'Grady, 50, is expected to become the highest paid presenter on television after jumping ship from ITV in one of broadcasting's biggest defections.

His decision is a massive blow to ITV which regarded The Paul O'Grady Show as one of its biggest hits.

But it is also a slap in the face for Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, whose status as the king and queen of teatime TV is about to be drastically diluted.

The couple, stalwarts of Channel 4's daytime schedule since leaving their ITV morning slot five years ago, have to make room for the new boy on the block.

Their 5pm weekday show will be shown just 26 weeks a year - down from more than 30.

O'Grady, who has effectively retired his alter-ego Lily Savage, will take the slot with his own programme for the rest of the year.

Channel 4 has tried to placate the couple, thought to be paid about £1million a year each, by extending their contract for another year to 2008.

But that will not stop O'Grady, once a regular guest on their old ITV show This Morning, from leapfrogging them in the earning stakes.

It is thought O'Grady will be paid around £2million a year to present his new show five days a week.

But he is likely to earn a similar amount again as a result of

making the show through his own production company, Wildflower.

It is understood that ITV's refusal to let him produce his own show - preferring to keep the lucrative commission with its own in-house production company Granada - was one of the reasons he has quit.