ITV’s biggest daytime hosts are reportedly facing a pay freeze as the channel holds crisis talks after ratings plummet on some of their iconic daytime TV shows including Good Morning Britain and This Morning.
Production teams and staff on shows, that are faced by stars such as Susanna Reid, 53, Cat Deeley, 47, and Ben Shephard, 49, will have their salaries frozen, according to The Sun.
Cat and Ben took over the helm of This Morning earlier this year, after the departure of Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby and reportedly signed contracts for a cool £555,000, while Susanna is said to have a £1.1 million per year deal.
ITV are said to have warned there could also be job cuts which will impact both permanent members of staff and freelancers.
The channel is believed to also be switching long term roles in the company to just three-month contracts.
And it is not just employment they are targeting as it is believed the company’s big summer party – which attracts some of the biggest stars in the business- is also at risk.
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ITV is reportedly suffering after their ratings plummet on some of their iconic daytime TV shows including GMB & This Morning
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Production teams and staff on shows, that are faced by stars such as Susanna Reid , 53 (pictured), Cat Deeley , 47, and Ben Shephard , 49, are facing a pay freeze, according to The Sun
Four of their flagship shows – Good Morning Britain, This Morning, Lorraine and Loose Women – are among the programmes that are reportedly affected.
The ratings are believed to have dropped so poorly that it triggered ITV‘s daytime boss to call a series of crisis ‘Town Hall’ meetings last week to break the news to the four shows.
Staff were reportedly presented with a graph detailing the rapid decline in ratings, while also showing the successful viewing figures for Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Bosses are said to have discussed Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, which had 60million views in a month, Amazon’s The Grand Tour, 170million views worldwide, and Clarkson’s Farm, which obtained 11million views in its first weekend.
A source told the publication: ‘ITV is really tightening their belt. There have been concerns for months at the top but now that it’s trickled down to the shop floor it feels very depressing.
‘A lot of staff are being put on three-month contracts. Staff are hopeful that the UK elections will help boost their ratings.’
AN ITV spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Town hall meetings happen frequently for teams to keep up to date with company news and also serve as an opportunity for staff to have questions answered.’
‘The latest one was to celebrate the success of Lorraine Kelly receiving a BAFTA Special Recognition Award and the two BAFTA nominations for Daytime last weekend. It was also a transparent portrayal of what is currently happening across the industry.’
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And it is not just employment they are targeting as it is believed that the company’s big summer party – which attracts some of the biggest stars (Kate Garraway)
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Four of their flagship shows – Good Morning Britain , This Morning, Lorraine and Loose Women – are among the programmes that are struggling
This Morning viewing figures dipped when Cat and Ben began helming the show, earlier this year.
Following the departure of Holly and Phillip, the ITV show was thrown into chaos as producers scrambled to find permanent replacements.
Cat and Ben were unveiled as the show’s new host’s in March, with their debut episode drawing an average viewership of 806,000 and a peak of one million – among the show’s highest ratings of 2024 so far.
But the following week saw the figure plunge to as low as 692,500, lower than both Holly and Phillip’s last day, which saw 767,00 people tune in.
A source told The Sun at the time: ‘The hope was that the new duo would bring back an air of stability and familiarity back to This Morning. It’s still relatively early days, but the signs are not good.’
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This Morning viewing figures dipped when Cat and Ben began helming the show, earlier this year (pictured in March)
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Following the departure of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, the ITV show was throw into chaos as producers scrambled to find permanent replacements (pictured in June 2018)
They added: ‘After the initial flurry of interest on their first day in the job, the viewing figures almost immediately dipped back into six figures.
‘ITV bosses will be hoping they can turn things around before the next big milestone date as they’ve so much riding on Ben and Cat being a success.’
A spokesperson told MailOnline on Sunday: ‘As a broadcaster and streamer, ITV has a range of programming in its Daytime schedules. This Morning reached an average 4.2 million viewers a week in April alone, its highest so far in 2024.’
‘In 2023 This Morning was one of the most streamed shows on ITVX. Like all media, This Morning has expanded into the digital sphere with record breaking results.’
‘This Morning remains Britain’s most talked about and influential daytime TV show and has never had a better connection with its viewer, with just under 160 million video views of This Morning content and reached 63 million unique social media accounts in April.’
After nearly a year of turmoil, This Morning producers were hoping to reverse the show’s fortunes with two brand new presenters.
The pair seemed to impress fans with many saying they had saved the show.
One person posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, said: ‘Love watching Cat and Ben a breath of fresh air a great duo. A brill revamp this morning needed long overdue.’
Another said: ‘Brilliant! I can now look forward to watching the show again. Mornings spent with Ben and Cat, lovely!’
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Cat and Ben were finally unveiled as the show’s new host’s last month, with their debut episode drawing an average viewership of 806,000 and a peak of one million
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But the following week saw the figure plunge to as low as 692,500, lower than both Holly and Phillip’s last day, which saw 767,00 people tune in
And the proof of the success was in the pudding after the show reeled in a peak of over one million viewers – 200,000 more than the show had previously been getting.
In January this year, the show had a peak of 888,000 viewers and in February, 942,000.
And on Monday March 4, a week before the relaunch, a peak of just 837,000 people tuned in.
Schofield announced his departure from the show in May 2023 after his romance with a younger male colleague was made public.
Shortly after ITV bosses were reportedly forced to ‘act fast’ after ratings plummeted to an average of 726,000.
By contrast, the pair pulled in an average of 1.3 million viewers in 2022 and 1.4 million in 2021.
In October last year Holly also announced she was quitting the show after 14 years after a man was charged in relation to an alleged plot to kidnap and murder her.
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Since Holly and Phillip’s departures, Alison Hammond, 49, and Dermot O’Leary, 50, have regularly stepped in and they continue to host the show on Fridays
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Cat and Ben seemed to impress fans with many saying they had saved the show after their debut
Since their departures, Alison Hammond, 49, and Dermot O’Leary, 50, have regularly stepped in.
And other guest presenters have included Rylan Clark, 35, Emma Willis, 47, Rochelle Humes, 34, Craig Doyle, 53, and Steve Jones, 46.
Ben and Cat are set to present the show from Monday to Thursday whilst Alison and Dermot will continue to present the Friday.
