Davina McCall may be taking a big risk in launching a new chat show. Its peak-time slot means it has lots of competition and - she's a woman.

Big Brother presenter Davina McCall undid her coat and let it drop to the floor, revealing she was wearing only a bikini underneath. Then she coolly sat down to interview the most recent housemate to be evicted.

Stripping off is not something you can imagine chat show king Parkinson doing on national TV - and if you do make the mistake of visualising it, chances are you'll be reaching for a sick bag.

McCall is unlikely to be repeating her strip on her new BBC chat show unless, of course, ratings are so bad that emergency action is required to get noticed.

Any new chat show is a risk and one placed in an eight o'clock primetime slot is riskier than most. Early evening or late night are the usual places to find chat on TV. Next week, McCall will have to persuade viewers to look who's talking rather than watch long-running police series The Bill, popular property show Relocation Relocation, Live Uefa Cup Football and the Winter Olympics on the other main channels.

Critics won't be shy in reminding her either that her last BBC1 excursion, the Saturday night show He's Having A Baby, flopped and moved to an earlier time slot after poor ratings.

She also suffers from something she can do nothing about - being a woman, a rare breed in the chat show world in this country if not in the US, where Oprah Winfrey reigns as queen of TV talk.

As BBC1 Controller Peter Fincham admitted when he announced her signing: "There aren't many chat shows with hosts that are women and this is very exciting for us. Since Michael Parkinson left, we haven't had a chat show before the news that's in peak time.

"We think that's a rather exciting thing to do, it's an exciting chat show that isn't hosted by a man. I think Davina is rather special and viewers really like her. I'm really glad she's here."

Women have presented British chat shows before but rarely as themselves. Caroline Aherne played at being Mrs Merton, while Dame Edna Everage was hardly your typical woman.

Nigella Lawson's afternoon mix of cookery and chat on ITV1 just didn't work. Pairing a woman with a man - think Des And Mel or Richard And Judy - is acceptable. So was letting Sue Lawley sit in for Terry Wogan from time to time.

But let a woman be in charge on her own? You've more chance of finding a happy marriage on a soap.

Liking McCall as the presenter of C4's Big Brother is one thing, wanting to watch her own entertainment show featuring guests and live music is quite another thing.

She knows the hazards ahead, understanding people will be out to get her and not everyone will like her. "Some probably think I'm a strong character and may find that alarming," she says. "I don't have a thick skin, so my motto is, 'don't read critics'. I'll have to prove them wrong. It will be a lot of fun, laughter and emotion."

She'll need a decent guest list too, but the opening show is noticeably lacking in really big names. Or even moderately big ones. Charlotte Church has done the talk show circuit so much, you may feel she has nothing left to say. Celebrity couple Vernon Kay and Tess Daly are hardly Burton and Taylor. And actor Max Beesley's appearance may not be entirely unconnected with his current BBC1 series Hotel Babylon.

McCall admits there aren't many guests on the market, and many will wait to see how she does in her first shows before volunteering themselves for interrogation.

We know she can deal with difficult guests from watching her debrief Big Brother housemates after their eviction. She can claim to have interviewed all manner of oddballs, from transsexuals to MPs.

With Parkie's ITV show off the air at present, she has a clear run at whichever Hollywood star is in town. Most of the competition has been and gone as well. Michael Aspel, Clive Anderson, Terry Wogan and Frank Skinner have all called it a day on TV chat.

With Parkie looking increasingly past it, she might do well to follow the example of another BBC1 chat show host, Jonathan Ross, or Paul O'Grady, whose ITV1 show won prizes, big audiences and a lucrative offer to move to C4. They're as much the stars of the show as their guests. The balance between promoting yourself and letting your visitors have their say is a tricky one.

If McCall imposes her personality on the show, she might just pull it off. One day, like Oprah, she could have an A-list guest like Tom Cruise jumping up and down on her sofa declaring his love for his girlfriend.

* Davina begins on BBC1 on Wednesday at 8pm.

Published: 11/02/2006