ITV has responded to some fresh reports that This Morning is set for a big presenting shake-up, hitting out at claims that husband-and-wife duo Tess Daly and Vernon Kay are set to join the daily magazine show.
It has been claimed that pair are being lined up replace Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley once their contracts are up, with bosses hoping to recreate the chemistry that married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan brought to this when they hosted.
However, the broadcaster stated that is not the case, standing behind Ben and Cat as well as fellow presenters Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond.
ITV
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An ITV spokesperson told Digital Spy: “We are very happy with Cat, Ben, Alison, and Dermot as This Morning’s lead presenters and there are no plans for that to change.
“2026 has got off to a great start for the show with viewing up year on year and a weekly reach of 3.7 million viewers.”
Tess and Vernon did present together recently, stepping in to cover an episode of BBC One’s The One Show.
The pair, who tied the knot in 2003 and have two daughters together, don’t present together often, with their most major project as a duo being the mid-2000’s BBC competition show Just the Two of Us.
BBC
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Meanwhile, Shephard stepped in to host Lorraine after usual host Lorraine Kelly lost her voice last week.
“If you’ve been watching this week, Lorraine’s voice has been getting very bad”, he said.
“It’s been getting worse. It finally collapsed last night. She couldn’t say a thing, much to Steve’s [her husband] delight – just a few squeaks here and there. I’ve jumped into the hot seat just for today.”
Both Lorraine and Loose Women are currently on a break, as part of ITV’s cost-cutting plan to have them only air for 30 weeks of the year.
This Morning airs weekdays from 10.30am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.