Good Morning Britain viewers were left fuming on Christmas Day after they discovered the ITV morning programmes had been pre-recorded
Viewers slammed the “absolutely dire” schedule(Image: ITV)
Good Morning Britain fans were left fuming on Christmas Day after realising that ITV’s morning shows had been pre-recorded.
ITV shook up its festive schedule, pushing the start time of GMB, typically fronted by Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley, to 7am instead of the usual 6am.
Meanwhile, Cat Deeley, Ben Shephard, and Lorraine Kelly graced our screens with holiday specials, all recorded prior to the big day.
However, this didn’t sit well with viewers who took to social media to vent their frustrations.
One disgruntled viewer ranted: “Pre-recorded rubbish all morning of the same shows which are on 52 weeks of the year. How about something different for a change? Christmas TV used to be special.”, reports Wales Online.
Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley usually host Good Morning Britain(Image: ITV)
Another chimed in: “Worst schedule I’ve ever seen ITV.”
A third commented: “That was bloody awful, and only getting worse it’s Lorraine.”
One curious viewer asked: “What day did you actually record this..”
Another irate fan blasted: “This has to be the worst, laziest programme schedule ever. The powers that be at #ITV should hang their heads in shame. Absolutely dire. All prerecorded rubbish. They’d have been better off putting on a Christmas film.”
Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on This Morning(Image: ITV)
One viewer criticised: “Why did ITV decide to have ZERO children’s or family friendly TV for the whole of Christmas morning in fact the entire day.”
Another agreed, suggesting: “Better off putting xmas films on instead of this pre recorded drivel filmed 2 weeks ago.”
Following the line-up of Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women, viewers can look forward to James Martin’s Saturday Morning. The evening schedule will feature the festive specials of Emmerdale and Coronation Street, followed by quiz shows like Bullseye and The 1% Club.
This comes in the wake of ITV announcing a series of changes to its morning programming, set to take effect from next week.
Lorraine’s airtime will be reduced, running only from 9.30am to 10am for 30 weeks of the year on a seasonal basis.
Lorraine Kelly’s show is undergoing a huge shake-up next year(Image: ITV)
In contrast, Good Morning Britain will extend its broadcast time to three and a half hours, and even four hours when Lorraine is off-air.
Loose Women will also follow a 30-week schedule, similar to its format up until 2016. These alterations are slated to commence from January 2026.
Kevin Lygo, Managing Director of ITV’s Media and Entertainment Division, commented: “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.”
He added: “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.”
Loose Women will be airing for the first time on Christmas Day(Image: ITV)
This Morning will maintain its regular weekday broadcast from 10am to 12.30pm, but production is relocating to a new central London studio.
Lygo continued: “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.
“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.”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.