Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha has criticised cuts to ITV daytime’s schedule, saying they have been “absolutely brutal” to production staff and came “out of the blue”.
The changes are expected to cause job losses across ITV’s morning offering including This Morning, Lorraine and Loose Women, which will be broadcast from a new location in central London while still being produced by ITV Studios.
Good Morning Britain is to be extended by half an hour from January, while Lorraine Kelly’s morning talk show will be reduced to 30 minutes for 30 weeks of the year, ITV said earlier this month.
This Morning, hosted by Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard, will remain in its 10am-12.30pm slot on weekdays through the year, with panel show Loose Women on from 12.30pm to 1.30pm.
On her YouTube channel, Sawalha said Loose Women had been “highly successful” along with the Lorraine show, and called conversations about the cuts “misogynistic”.
The actress, who was in EastEnders and The Bill and appeared on ITV competition show Dancing On Ice in 2011, said: “What people don’t realise at Loose Women is that we’re self-employed, I am self-employed. Every contract is a new contract.
“I could be let go tomorrow, I could be let go in five years, you don’t know because we’re not employees.”
Sawalha added: “What’s been brutal, absolutely brutal, over the last week, honestly I feel tearful about it, is that hundreds of people… are going to be made redundant out of the blue, these are all the people behind the scenes that support us in every way.”
She accepted that inflation was “insane, and cuts have to be made”, before becoming emotional.
She said: “A lot of my friends and colleagues on this show and have worked for ITV have been there for decades… and I can’t tell you how upsetting it was to see people walking around numb with shock and fear about what they are going to do… (when) television is coming very slowly to its natural end.”
She added that the announcement had “been so awful, it has been worse than whatever trolls have been saying about our shows that we feel really protective of”.
Sawalha said: “Do you know what, at the moment, all of us on screen are in work and are proud of what we do.
“But behind the scenes there are people that are really suffering, and what you don’t realise is when you attack the show you attack them, because you never see all the army of people behind the scenes and how hard they work.
“So to all my friends and colleagues behind the scenes that have just got a huge shock out of the blue, I’m so sorry.
“And (my husband) Mark (Adderley) knows just how upset I’ve been at home about it. I just can’t bear it. So just be f****** kind (to) people.”
Scottish presenter Kelly has fronted Lorraine since 2010 and, under the new 2026 schedule, on weeks when the show is not on air, Good Morning Britain will be further extended by another half-hour, airing from 6am to 10am.
Kevin Lygo, managing director of ITV’s Media and Entertainment Division, said the changes will be “generating savings which will allow us to reinvest across the programme budget in other genres”.
He said: “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.”
Earlier this month, ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said the company was making “good progress” on a cost-cutting drive, and she expected to make £30 million of non-content savings during 2025.
Other changes to the channel include making Coronation Street and Emmerdale only half-hour instalments, and Dancing On Ice being “rested”.
Dancing On Ice previously took a break after the ninth series in 2014 before making a comeback in 2018.
Coronation Street currently airs for three hour-long episodes a week, while Emmerdale has four 30-minute episodes and one hour-long instalment.
