ITV boss warns of 'challenging' changes to daytime ahead of huge cuts

ITV boss Kevin Lygo has insisted the channel will try to make their daytime shows look the same next year but admitted it will be “challenging” - as he spoke out about the budget cuts to daytime.

From January 2026 Lorraine Kelly's morning show on ITV will be cut from an hour to 30 minutes as more than 220 jobs across the station's daytime output are being cut, the broadcaster announced in May.

Asked directly if the best days of daytime TV were behind them at ITV, ITV managing director Lygo said “no, I don’t think so” but admitted there would be changes.

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He said: “As a commercial broadcast you earn most of your money with big audiences in peak time. That is what advertisers want and the cost of those has gone up and up and up. Those are the things that drive us commercially.

“Those morning shows have been on forever and they are brilliant and they are watched and they are seven hours of TV a day but they do cost a great deal of money.

“So we thought, is there a way of keeping those long standing brands on air and keeping the familiar faces on that give comfort to people? So the editorial brief was if you have a lot less money, which you will do from January, to try to make it so the audience isn’t shocked. They should look more or less the same, they are less funded so that will be challenging to the producers. But unfortunately that means people doing a perfectly good job will lose their jobs because we need fewer people making them.”

Lygo also defended the decision to keep Torode’s John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen on air on ITV after he was sacked from MasterChef following an independent report.

Questioned over this decision to let him remain on screen, Lygo said he “felt it was a bit much for us to jump on the bandwagon and just deny these shows to go out.”

He added: “We don’t know the details, the BBC haven’t come out with that. We pre-recorded those shows. We did ask the producers of our shows if there were any incidents and they said everything was fine.”

Torode was sacked after the report, initially examining allegations against Wallace, upheld a complaint against him for use of racial language. Torode has apologised but denied the incident took place.

In a separate session at the Edinburgh TV Festival, the BBC’s chief content officer said the corporation “acted fast” after misconduct allegations against former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace.

Wallace, 60, issued an apology saying he was “deeply sorry for any distress caused” and that he “never set out to harm or humiliate”, after a review said 45 out of 83 allegations made against him were upheld.

Speaking at the Festival, Kate Phillips said: “I think when complaints came to me about Gregg Wallace, which was 2019, when I dealt with it, I always dealt with it straightaway.

“So there were two complaints. I dealt with them. I acted on them fast.

“I think we weren’t as joined-up in the BBC as we are now, so I didn’t know about some of the historical things that had taken place. So if I’d known about those at the time, yes, I may have acted differently, but I acted on the information I was given.

“I think I acted responsibly. I left him in no doubt of the expected behaviour that we expect at the BBC, if you like. I stand by the actions I took at the time with the knowledge that I had.”

ITV staff working on daytime were told in a meeting in May that 220 production staff out of 440 will lose their jobs

On the other daytime shows as previously revealed in the Mirror there will be cuts to Loose Women which will see less panelists needed than the current rota of 26.

One insider insister 8-10 might leave in the New Year and it would mean the next six months would see panelists being more outrageous and bold with their comments than normal to keep the spot on the show. ITV have insisted there will be no widespread cuts when it comes to panelists.

Good Morning Britain will also see big cuts and changes but the one constant will be Susanna Reid. A source previously told the Mirror: “When there are cuts this big normally no one is safe but Susanne Reid is someone ITV want to build the show around and is seen as an essential part of daytime. She is 100% safe from the cuts but will be very worried for friends she has on GMB and what the cuts mean for the quality of the programme on screen.”

Hundreds of staff are now in a consultation process at ITV.

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