WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING TO ITV DAYTIME? From Lorraine hosting changes to shortened episodes and staff exits, sweeping cuts are reshaping daytime TV.
ITV daytime is changing, as a result of huge budget cuts, and things will be very different for the broadcaster going forward.
One aspect of ITV that’s set to be heavily affected is its core daytime offerings, which include Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women.
The good news is, none of these shows have been axed entirely. However, they are going to change pretty dramatically.
For the full run-down, keep reading….
Loose Women will only air 30 weeks of the year (Credit: ITV)
One major change is that Lorraine and Loose Women will no longer be aired for 52 weeks of the year. Instead, they will be aired seasonally for 30 weeks per year, meaning that the shows will lose more than 100 episodes.
The exact timeframe of when these shows will air has not yet been confirmed, but it’s likely that it will follow a rough ‘school term’ schedule.
ITV daytime and studio changes amid cuts
This Morning will remain with its current schedule (Credit: ITV)
Lorraine’s runtime has also been slashed by half an hour to make room for more Good Morning Britain.
During the weeks Lorraine airs, it will run from 9:30am-10am instead of 9am-10am. This means that Good Morning Britain will run between 6am and 9:30am.
Moreover, for the 22 weeks Lorraine is not on TV, Good Morning Britain will be extended even further.
As for This Morning, the show will continue to air between 10am and 12:30pm, while Loose Women will once again occupy their old 12:30pm-1:30pm slot.
This Morning, Lorraine and Loose Women are also migrating to a new studio in central London: one that they will share in order to cut costs. While all of them will continue to be live, Loose Women will no longer have a live studio audience.
Meanwhile, Good Morning Britain is going to start being produced by ITV News at ITN.
Who is leaving?
Rumour has it Adil Ray is on his way out (Credit: ITV)
The reduction of Lorraine episodes means that Ranvir Singh and Christine Lampard will no longer step in to host the chat show — instead, Lorraine herself will be flying solo. However, Ranvir and Christine will likely remain across ITV’s TV circuit.
The cut of Loose Women’s live studio audience has resulted in Loose Women legend Lee Peart’s sacking. The comedian, who has been on the show since 2017, previously served as the audience’s warm-up act.
Jordan Rowley, who has served as a Loose Women producer for four years, was also axed from the show, with Ruth paying tribute to her “lovely friend” in a social media post.
As for Good Morning Britain, US correspondent Noel Phillips is also facing the axe. Moreover, back in May, The Mail also claimed that Adil Ray might also be leaving. There hasn’t been any further word on this since, though.
According to The Mirror, around 220 jobs are being cut from ITV’s daytime team. There’s been a lot of speculation over which high-profile presenters would leave these flagship shows. However, so far, it looks like the only one affected is Andrew Pierce, who announced his exit in December.
Dr Hilary Jones also confirmed he’s leaving amid the upcoming ITV cuts.
What has ITV said?
Good Morning Britain is being extended (Credit: ITV)
As the ‘bloodbath’ of redundancies and format changes were announced, Kevin Lygo, Managing Director of ITV’s Media and Entertainment Division, said: “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.”
“These changes also allow us to consolidate our news operations and expand our national, international and regional news output and to build upon our proud history of trusted journalism at a time when our viewers need accurate, unbiased news coverage more than ever.”
