Loose Women panellist Brenda Edwards fears losing her job amid brutal ITV cuts

Loose Women panellist Brenda Edwards shared her worries for her role after ITV announced budget cuts to the programmes

Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards shared her worries about her job amid ITV’s budget cuts. The 56-year-old has been a panellist for the talk show since 2019 and hopes to keep her position on the programme to “raise awareness” on multiple topics that are regularly discussed on the show.

It comes as ITV revealed Loose Women will be airing for 30 weeks instead of 52 weeks starting from the New Year. Over 220 jobs at the channel are also being cut. Speaking to Women’s Own magazine, she said: “You have to move with the times I guess, and I hope this is just an interim thing, and maybe in a few years’ time [it will go back to how it was], but we can only wait and see.

Loose Women star Brenda Edwards
Brenda hopes to retain her position to ‘raise awareness’ on topics 
Image:
Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

“I don’t like to make assumptions on anything because I don’t know what’s happening there but I hope I manage to get some shows and am able to use my platform to raise awareness for whatever I can.”

She went on to discuss her fellow panellists, admitting she’s a “big fan” of Janet Street-Porter and her ‘feistiness’.

She added: “I just love her feistiness and outspokenness, which I think a lot of us have. She is doing her first-ever tour where she will talk to the audience, and it’s going to be fab!

Charlene White, Katie Piper, Janet Street-Porter and Brenda Edwards on Loose Women
Brenda said she’s a big fan of Janet’s ‘feistiness’
“I’m assuming she will talk about everything, including her life, so it will be amazing! We support each other as always. I remember when I was growing up all the women in my family loved Janet and what she stood for.”

Brenda isn’t the only Loose Women star to comment on the move as fellow panellist Nadia Sawalha previously said the ITV budget cuts news came “out of the blue” and would be “absolutely brutal” for the show.

Speaking on her YouTube channel, she said: “What’s been brutal, absolutely brutal, over the last week, honestly I feel tearful about it, is that hundreds of people… are going to be made redundant out of the blue, these are all the people behind the scenes that support us in every way.”

The cuts mean that around 220 out of the 440 staff involved in the programmes would lose their jobs following the decision published in May, reports the Guardian.

Whilst Loose Women will stay at the same running time, the number of times it appears on the air will be cut from 52 to 30 weeks.

ITV’s media and entertainment division Kevin Lygo has said that cutting Loose Women and Lorraine’s weeks aligned “with the lead daytime presenters who host their shows around a seasonal pattern”.

He explained: “Daytime is a really important part of what we do, and these scheduling and production changes will enable us to continue to deliver a schedule providing viewers with the news, debate and discussion they love from the presenters they know and trust, as well generating savings which will allow us to reinvest across the programme budget in other genres.”

Related Posts

Denise Welch fans left baffled as she adopts bizarre new accent on US talk show

Loose Women star Denise Welch appeared on Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen where she debuted a brand-new ‘transatlantic accent’ Denise Welch has left fans baffled after…

Strictly’s Anton Du Beke shares heartbreak over wife’s ‘cruel and inexplicable’ diagnosis

Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke has been married to his wife Hannah Summers since 2017 and the couple share twins George and Henrietta, who were…

Gregg Wallace reveals how he feels about Rod Stewart after singer’s ‘tubby’ swipe

Sir Rod Stewart last year branded Gregg Wallace ‘a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully’ and claimed the former MasterChef star ‘humiliated’ wife Penny Lancaster during her time on…

Gemma Collins’ ‘risky move after 2 stone weight loss with something to prove’

Former The Only Way Is Essex star Gemma Collins is said to be close to signing a big money deal which could see her return to the…

Stacey Solomon and husband Joe Swash’s vow after ‘tension’ at home

Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash’s busy life is taking a toll on their relationship, with Joe struggling under the pressure Joe Swash is struggling under the pressure,…

This Morning fans left concerned after Dermot O’Leary hits head live on TV

This Morning fans were left concerned for presenter Dermot O’Leary as he hit his head live on air after a beauty segment took an awkward turn on…