COLEEN NOLAN’S HEARTBREAKING FINANCIAL STRUGGLE: ‘I Can’t Even Afford Basic Bills Anymore’
Coleen Nolan has laid bare her financial concerns amid the brutal budget cuts to Loose Women.
The long-time ITV presenter, 60, has addressed the ‘sad’ changes to the daytime television programme following the cutbacks.
In June last year, the Daily Mail exclusively revealed that the ITV programme was set to axe the live audience and schedule in a desperate bid to save money as the channel’s budget cuts raged on.
Speaking on the Not My Bagg podcast, Coleen explained: ‘We’ll only be on during term time now. So all the holidays will be off.
‘On one hand, you go “quite nice time off”. But then on the other hand, you go, “I’ve still got bills to pay.”
She added: ‘It’s just a different vibe, I think it will be okay but I’m just going to miss a lot of different people behind the scenes.
‘It will still be live but there will be no audience and I don’t think they are having guests. I just feel like it will be like a podcast but on live television.’
She added: ‘But, it could have been worse. They could have said: “By the way, we’re not recommissioning it. See you later.” It’s still here, it’s still going.’
Coleen continued: ‘I love having the audience there. You know, you get all the feedback from the audience and the adrenaline from the audience. So that’s going to be really weird for us.’
However, Coleen admitted she understood the business aspect of the cost-cutting despite the sadness.
She said: ‘They’ve all got to find new jobs. So there’s a sadness. I understand that it’s a business, and sometimes in business hard decisions have to be made and nowadays it is all about budgets.
‘TV is so different now. I mean, if you think of how many channels there are, the competition… I can’t even count how many channels there are.
‘It’s a different era now to what it was 25 years ago. When I was a kid, there was three channels. That’s how old I am!
‘When I did the Cliff Richard series when I was nine, that went out on a Saturday night and there were 23million every week watching that show.’
The cuts will see Lorraine move to a 30-week schedule with episodes cut to just half an hour from 9.30am to 10am.
This Morning will continue to air for two-and-a-half hours from 10am until 12:30pm, while Good Morning Britain will be increased by 30 minutes.
Loose Women will continue in its usual slot from 12.30pm to 1.30pm, but episode numbers will be reduced to a 30-week ‘seasonal’ based schedule.
The changes took place on Monday and the new studio is located at The H Club Studio in Covent Garden, London, after previously being filmed at the Television Centre in White City.
