Latest news with #JanetStreetPorter
Wales Online
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Loose Women's Janet Street Porter sets record straight on show future after 'sad' setback
Loose Women's Janet Street Porter sets record straight on show future after 'sad' setback As part of ITV's major 2026 overhaul, Loose Women will move to a seasonal schedule of 30 weeks per year and will no longer feature a studio audience Janet Street Porter said she won't be affected by the changes Loose Women star Janet Street Porter has opened up about the upcoming changes to the show, as part of ITV's scheduling plans. Set to come into force in 2026, episodes of the daytime favourite will be reduced, and will no longer have a live audience. With the programme scheduled to air just 30 weeks per year, there's speculation that the current roster of 26 panellists may also face cuts. Speaking on the matter, the 78-year-old broadcaster claimed that these changes won't impact her much. "They won't really affect me because I work when I want to work," she told Woman Magazine. "I can see they need to save money but from my point of view, I'm sad they've cut the episodes because Loose Women as a brand is doing extremely well for ITV. "Very well indeed. It's increased its audience share and it's loved by the audience." Janet Street Porter doesn't believe the long-term panellists will be axed from the show Having joined the panel back in 2011, Janet is among the show's longstanding contributors alongside the likes of Ruth Langsford, Jane Moore and Kaye Adams. In a previous interview, the journalist insisted that she and "the older" panellists will not be axed. She told Bella Magazine: "There are no plans to get rid of the older women, despite of what some people have said! "In fact, the reverse is true. ITV actually put out a statement saying we are the valued members of the show because the audience totally relate to us." Janet also believes the show has become "trusted by a lot of women", due to the difficult topics the panellists discuss, from female health to domestic violence. "I think the show has managed to connect to women who wouldn't otherwise have a voice," she added. "And it's delivered with a lot of laughs because we don't take ourselves too seriously." Loose Women's Nadia Sawalha said she found the cuts 'brutal' (Image: ITV) While Janet has a nonchalant attitude towards the change-up, her co-host Nadia Sawalha expressed a different view. In a heartfelt video on her YouTube channel, the actress described the sudden cuts as "absolutely brutal". Addressing the uncertainty of her future on the show due to her self-employed status, she added: "I could be let go tomorrow, [or] I could be let go in five years, you don't know because we're not employees." Alongside Loose Women, Lorraine Kelly's eponymous show will also shift to a 30-week seasonal schedule, and will see its airtime reduced from one hour to 30 minutes. Kevin Lygo, the managing director of ITV's Media and Entertainment Division, acknowledged in a statement that the broadcaster is undergoing a "transition". He stated: "I recognise that our plans will have an impact on staff off screen in our Daytime production teams. "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." Article continues below Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV and ITVX.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Loose Women's Janet Street Porter says 'I'm sad' as she addresses major show setback
Loose Women will shift to a seasonal schedule of 30 weeks per year and will no longer have a studio audience, as part of ITV's major shake-up for 2026 Loose Women panellist Janet Street Porter has spoken out about the upcoming changes to the ITV show, set to take effect in 2026. As part of a major shake-up to ITV's scheduling, there will be fewer episodes aired of the popular lunchtime programme, and live studio audiences will also be scrapped. With the show being scaled back to just 30 weeks a year, reports also suggest that some of the 26-strong panel could also be cut. Addressing the changes, the 78-year-old said she won't be affected by it. "They won't really affect me because I work when I want to work," she shared with Woman Magazine. "I can see they need to save money but from my point of view, I'm sad they've cut the episodes because Loose Women as a brand is doing extremely well for ITV. "Very well indeed. It's increased its audience share and it's loved by the audience." Janet is one of the long-term panellists, who has been a part of the show since 2011. In a previous interview, she seemed adamant that the older stars will not be axed from the programme. "There are no plans to get rid of the older women, despite of what some people have said!," she told Bella Magazine. "In fact, the reverse is true. ITV actually put out a statement saying we are the valued members of the show because the audience totally relate to us." Janet went on to say that the show has become "trusted by a lot of women", due to the difficult topics the panellists discuss, such as female health and domestic violence. "I think the show has managed to connect to women who wouldn't otherwise have a voice," she added. "And it's delivered with a lot of laughs because we don't take ourselves too seriously." While Janet may not seem worried by the news, her co-star Nadia Sawalha has expressed a very different view. In an emotional video on her YouTube Channel, the presenter said she found the "out of the blue" cuts 'absolutely brutal'. Addressing her uncertain future on the show due to being self-employed, she added: "I could be let go tomorrow, [or] I could be let go in five years, you don't know because we're not employees." As well as Loose Women, Lorraine Kelly's self-titled show will also only operate on a 30-week seasonal basis, and will be cut from one hour to 30 minutes on air. In a statement, Kevin Lygo, the managing director of ITV's Media and Entertainment Division, acknowledged that the broadcaster is going through a "transition". He said: "I recognise that our plans will have an impact on staff off screen in our Daytime production teams. "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." Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV and ITVX.
Telegraph
02-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Janet Street-Porter: ‘I'm sick of reading about ageing healthily – I love a fry up'
How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Janet-Street Porter. 8am At the weekend we're usually in Norfolk. We live in a very isolated house in the middle of an island between the River Yare and the River Waveney, so I have no noise to wake me up. I love everything about our home. It's thatched, listed and old. I've sold my house in London and I'm moving to a flat in the Barbican. We also have a beach hut in Kent and our routine is the same there. 9am I have exactly the same breakfast every day – a full English. I am sick of reading in newspaper supplements about ageing healthily. My partner Peter always cooks it. He'll do bacon and eggs from the local farm shop, tomatoes or mushrooms, occasionally a slice of black pudding. I will precede that with dark fruit, blueberries, black grapes, pomegranate seeds. That's my homage to the health people. We always have wholemeal or seeded sourdough bread and our own homemade marmalade. We have an orchard, so we've got plums, greengages, redcurrants, Bramleys and Cox's Orange Pippin. We've got a vegetable garden too, with onions, a massive amount of chard, four lots of potatoes, lettuce, borlotti beans and runner beans. 10.30am One bone of contention for me is that Radio 3 moved Andrew McGregor's Record Review to the afternoon. We love classical music and have it on all day. But we don't like the chat. I'm looking forward to my tour Off The Leash. What I like doing is talking about my childhood and how bizarre it was. That really resonates with the audience. I was born directly after the war and there was this question over my parents' relationship and how they met, why they stayed together and how that shapes the person that you are. It's based on my book Baggage and the tour is going to be me ranting. 11am I go for the newspapers. That involves getting in the car and driving for 20 minutes. I drive off the marsh on to the mainland and go to the community shop, run by the locals. 1pm We go for a walk in the woods near Fritton with the dog Badger. He's an 11-year-old border terrier and very demanding – he sings and howls. 2.30pm We come back, divide up the papers and chuck out the ads for stairlifts. As I've had a big breakfast, I'll have a piece of cheese and a tomato. I love the local cheese Baron Bigod – it's like Brie but better. 3pm If the weather is nice, I'll be in the garden, not sitting indoors. My partner says I'm someone who is incapable of sitting still. I have little scraps of paper in a drawer by the bed and before I go to sleep I will write my to-do list and tick them off in the day. 5pm There's my addiction to Scrabble on my phone to fit in. I'm playing at the highest level. 6pm If I've lost at Scrabble, I'll be overtired and slightly grumpy, so I'll have a bath to calm down. I change for dinner. During the day I wear what I call marshwear – really old clothes, the kind that when you are spotted in Morrisons you can see people saying, 'Oh gosh, I thought she was on television once!' I might put on something like a big knitted dress that will allow me to eat a massive dinner. 7pm We always have to think about what we are going to eat two or three days at a time because we don't live near a shop. I might have fish delivered that I've ordered during the week. We both really enjoy cooking and we might try a recipe from the paper that I have obsessively have cut out. I like Sally Clarke and, to a certain extent, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, people who use simple ingredients that they have grown or are local. I read Rachel Roddy's book about pasta, so we might have a really good pasta dish with a salad from the garden, or brill or hake baked with olives and tomatoes. I have a non-alcoholic beer. During the week I go out to dinner with friends in London, so I would have one or two glasses of wine, but I cut back on the weekend. 9pm We'll watch television. I like Nordic/Scandi noir or some subtitled foreign misery. I started Helsinki Murders but even by my standards it was so grim. I'm also watching Dept Q, set in Edinburgh. 11pm I wash my skin with a gentle cleanser and put a Neal's Yard night cream on. I have glaucoma so I have to do eye drops twice a day. I might hear my partner through the floorboards watching a re-run of Bottom. I'll take some bits of the newspapers and go and read. At the moment I'm also reading Convenience Store Woman by the Japanese novelist Sayaka Murata. It's a real cult book. I'll read until midnight, fall asleep and then wake every two hours or so..
Daily Mail
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Loose Women's Linda Robson shares fears over future of ITV programme as she 'prays' it doesn't get the axe after huge budget cuts
Loose Women 's Linda Robson has shared her fears as she 'prays' for the future of the ITV programme after huge budget cuts. It was revealed back in May the show has been axed for half the year and Lorraine's runtime has been slashed by 30 minutes, as Daytime bosses announced cuts with job losses in excess of 220. According to insiders, once ITV's budget cuts come into effect in January, Loose Women will no longer have A-list guests in the studio, and the broadcast is planned to only consist of the panel debating newsworthy topics from the week. Speaking at National Reality TV Awards in London, Linda said: 'We are all rallying together. It will be very sad if we can't have guests. 'It's a shame people are losing their jobs. We're all like a family. We've been together through births, marriages, deaths. It's been very hard. Everyone's worried about the show. 'We're just trying to stay positive and hope for the best. But hopefully it's not going be as bad as it already is,' The Mirror reports. It was revealed back in May the show has been axed for half the year and Lorraine's runtime has been slashed by 30 minutes, as Daytime bosses announced cuts with over 220 job losses Recently Loose lady Janet Street-Porter revealed which stars are at risk from brutal cost-saving cuts by ITV - and which panelists are safe. The 78-year-old has shed light on the reality behind the looming cuts proposed by the broadcaster, which are set to impact several daytime shows. Janet appears certain that the 'older' Loose Women stars are not likely to be cut, given they appeal more directly to the show's target demographic. But she warns that newcomers, younger stars or those with less experience could be at risk. 'There are no plans to get rid of the older women despite what some people have said,' Janet said. The Brentford-born writer said the panel programme has gained the trust of female viewers as a place where important female-centred topics are discussed. Janet added: 'I think Loose Women has become a programme that is trusted by a lot of women because we talk about the issues that they are concerned about - whether it's female health, domestic violence or how politicians don't really understand working women.' 'I think the show has managed to connect women who wouldn't otherwise have a voice. 'And it's delivered with a lot of laughs because we don't take ourselves too seriously.' Loose Women producers are expected to cut celebrity guests from the show - and growing fears the ITV staple could even be cancelled within a year. The long-running series usually welcomes a host of celebrities onto the panel to promote upcoming projects and have had the likes of Naomi Campbell, Elizabeth Hurley, Joan Collins, and even former Prime Minster Rishi Sunak appear. Now, TV sources have claimed that Loose Women is predicted to be completely cancelled within the year, as viewing figures are expected to drop once the show's quality is reduced. Daily Mail revealed that the show has axed their studio audience, an integral part to the programme, which caused upset among several members of the long-standing cast including Nadia Sawalha, Ruth Langsford and Coleen Nolan. In May, ITV announced that Lorraine and Loose Women will only air for 30 weeks a year rather than 52, resulting in more than 220 of 440 staff involved losing their jobs. A TV source told Daily Mail: 'Not having guests is a big blow for both the presenters and viewers at home. 'The guests are often one of the highest parts of the show, so it feels like a very strange decision to cut them altogether. Instead, the focus will be on guests for Lorraine and This Morning. 'Behind the scenes the presenters are really upset because they love having guests on and feel they offer a different type of interview to the other daytime shows. 'Firstly, there are four hosts conducting the conversation and secondly, they use their interviews to discuss female focused issues, something shows like This Morning don't do as often. 'In recent years, Loose Women have welcomed Elizabeth Hurley, Joan Collins and have down sit down one on one interviews with Janet Jackson and Naomi Campbell who all chose to do their chats with the show because they love it. 'It's a real shame that in January, the programme will become a shell of its former self before it is inevitably cancelled altogether.' MailOnline understands that the reason for Loose Women axing celebrity guests is because there simply won't be enough manpower to host visitors and their decision has been to prioritise Lorraine and This Morning, so by default, the panel show will ultimately miss out. Former Prime Minster Rishi Sunak faced a gruelling from the Loose Women in May 2024 who probed on topics from sex education in schools to pensions and housing An ITV spokesperson added: 'While the team is still working on the show for next year, we can assure you that Loose Women remains a big priority within our daytime slate. 'The stars of the show are the Loose Women and that's why they've received a BAFTA nomination, launched a podcast and celebrated a milestone anniversary in the last year alone.' It comes after ITV announced dramatic budget cuts to their daytime schedule from halving Lorraine to 30 minutes and only airing the show during school term times to cutting Loose Women's output to 30 weeks a year. Under the plans, production of Good Morning Britain will be handled by a dedicated team at ITV News, which is made by ITN, the company that also holds the contracts to produce the news for Channel 4 and Channel 5. ITV Studios will continue to produce Lorraine, Loose Women and This Morning but is consulting on a plan to reduce the three separate teams to one, with the latter being prioritised in terms of their celebrity bookings. Loose Women panelist Nadia expressed her sadness over the show scrapping a live studio audience and as a result, her close friend and colleague, Lee Peart, who works as a warm-up artist, losing his job. She said: 'I am totally devastated by this fact, I can't get over it at all. Not only because the audience is so important for the show, but also my dear friend Lee who I work with every day.' Nadia also vocalised her feelings over the 'brutal' cuts to Loose Women as she explained how tough the May announcement had been for staff. She explained: 'This show has been highly successful for 25 years, more actually now, it is such a clear brand... 'The brutality of the world... what a lot of people don't realise is that we're self-employed, every contract is a new contract, I could be let go tomorrow or in five years, we're not employees. 'What's been absolutely brutal over the last week and honestly, I feel tearful about it is that hundreds of people are going to be made redundant out of the blue, these are people behind the scenes, that support us in every way. 'It's the way of the world, inflation is insane, cuts have to be made... a lot of my friends and colleagues on this show and at 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 were going to do.'
Daily Mail
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Loose Women pulled from screens all week as troubled talk show dealt another blow in ITV schedule shake-up
Loose Women has been pulled from our screens all week as part of another ITV schedule shake-up. The programme usually airs on the popular channel straight after This Morning at 12:30pm and wraps up an hour later. But this week ITV are covering the Goodwood Races between 1pm and 4pm. This means that after This Morning finishes at 12:30pm, the ITV Lunch Time News is on until 12:50pm, followed by ITV News London until the races start. The new schedule will remain in place until the start of next week. At the end of Monday's episode Loose Women host Ruth Langsford, 65, told viewers: 'That's it for today and actually for the rest of this week. 'We're not on this week because of the horse racing, but we will be back next Monday. Have a great afternoon!' This isn't the first time that the popular programme has been cancelled in recent weeks. Back on June 17 Loose Women was cancelled due to the coverage of the Royal Ascot. Then weeks before on June 6 the show didn't air due to ITV airing the first Derby meeting from Epsom races. In recent months Loose Women has hit headlines after it was revealed back in May that it has been axed for half the year and Lorraine's runtime has been slashed by 30 minutes, as ITV Daytime bosses announced huge cuts today with job losses in excess of 220. Recently Loose lady Janet Street-Porter revealed which stars are at risk from brutal cost-saving cuts by ITV - and which panelists are safe. The 78-year-old has shed light on the reality behind the looming cuts proposed by the broadcaster, which are set to impact several daytime shows. Janet appears certain that the 'older' Loose Women stars are not likely to be cut, given they appeal more directly to the show's target demographic. But she warns that newcomers, younger stars or those with less experience could be at risk. 'There are no plans to get rid of the older women despite what some people have said,' Janet said. The Brentford-born writer said the panel programme has gained the trust of female viewers as a place where important female-centred topics are discussed. 'I think Loose Women has become a programme that is trusted by a lot of women because we talk about the issues that they are concerned about - whether it's female health, domestic violence or how politicians don't really understand working women,' she said. 'I think the show has managed to connect women who wouldn't otherwise have a voice. 'And it's delivered with a lot of laughs because we don't take ourselves too seriously.' Loose Women producers are expected to cut celebrity guests from the show - and growing fears the ITV staple could even be cancelled within a year. The long-running series usually welcomes a host of celebrities onto the panel to promote upcoming projects and have had the likes of Naomi Campbell, Elizabeth Hurley, Joan Collins, and even former Prime Minster Rishi Sunak appear. But according to insiders, once ITV's budget cuts come into effect in January, Loose Women will no longer have A-list guests in the studio, and the broadcast is planned to only consist of the panel debating newsworthy topics from the week.
