ITV has just finished briefing staff on a major overhaul of its daytime schedule, which will dramatically scale back the airtime devoted to shows like Loose Women and Lorraine.
ITV will make more than 220 redundancies under the sweeping changes, but it has promised to reinvest all savings into more streaming-friendly content, including drama and sport.
That 220 figure represents around half the 450 employees who produce output across ITV Studios-made Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning, and Loose Women.
Major broadcast networks are re-evaluating their schedules as viewers watch more content online. Topical daytime shows are expensive to make and do not have the online shelf-life of big-ticket dramas and documentaries, meaning they are being scaled back as media companies switch strategy.
Under the plans, ITV will scale back Loose Women and Lorraine by at least 42%, meaning they will go from broadcasting 52 weeks of the year to 30 weeks. Furthermore, Lorraine’s run time will be halved to 30 minutes. The changes will come into force in January 2026.
ITV is planning to move Good Morning Britain to ITN, which produces ITV News. GMB will be made by a dedicated team at ITV News and will be extended by 30 minutes during the weeks Lorraine is not on air. The hope is that this will reduce overlap between the two services and improve newsgathering.
ITV Studios will continue to produce Lorraine, This Morning, and Loose Women, but they will be housed under one combined team, rather than having three dedicated production operations. The shows will also relocate from Television Centre, White City, to a central London location.
Kevin Lygo, managing director of ITV’s Media and Entertainment Division, said: “Daytime has been a core element of ITV’s schedule for over 40 years and these changes will set ITV up to continue to bring viewers award winning news, views and discussion as we enter our eighth decade.”
On the job cuts, he added: “I recognise that our plans will have an impact on staff off screen in our daytime production teams, and we will work with ITV Studios and ITN as they manage these changes to produce the shows differently from next year, and support them through this transition.”