Carol McGiffin slams Loose Women stars and shares 'truth' behind ITV budget cuts
Carol McGiffin hasn't held back in her criticism of ITV's daytime lineup, branding shows like Loose Women, This Morning, and Good Morning Britain as 'rubbish' and out of touch with audiences.
Speaking on Dan Wootton's Outspoken podcast, the former Loose Women regular, who appeared on and off between 2000 and 2023, slammed ITV for reportedly trying to win back viewers by bringing in influencers.
'They can stand there and say, 'The reason that we're suffering is because of online TV, people don't watch TV anymore, they go online for news or entertainment or anything, or streaming services,'' she said. 'Maybe it's just because it's rubbish and they just aren't very good at it anymore. They don't consider that.'
Carol returned to Loose Women with high hopes, but was left disappointed. 'When I went back to Loose Women, I thought, 'This is great, we might be able to make Loose Women great again.' But it just proved completely impossible.'
She added: 'Sometimes, if I've ever seen anything on This Morning or on YouTube or whatever, you just think, 'This is ridiculous! This is not popular. This is not what people want.''
Taking aim at ITV's strategy, she said: 'They really don't know what people want, and they tell them what they want all the time and they give it to them and force it down their throats.'
She also criticized ITV's assumption that influencers would attract younger viewers: 'A lot of young people never watch television… The fact that ITV thinks, 'If we get all these young influencers on, everyone's going to start watching daytime TV,' is just ridiculous.'
Addressing recent job cuts and shortened programming - Loose Women will air just 30 weeks a year from 2026 - Carol said she feels 'really bad' for those affected but questioned the dramatic reactions from her former co-stars.
'The Loose Women are apparently raging about it – I haven't spoken to any of them about it. They are like, 'We were kept in the dark.' They never know what's going on. Loose Women is the poor relation so is suffering the most.'
She added: 'I do feel for them, but I don't buy into this, 'All their worlds have fallen apart because this show has ended.' Hang on a minute – what did you expect? Did you think it was just going on forever? Especially in the way it is.'
Carol's comments come as ITV is making significant cuts to its daytime programming, including reducing the number of weeks that Loose Women and Lorraine air, as well as merging the production teams behind Lorraine, This Morning, and Loose Women.
These changes are part of a broader cost-cutting effort, which will also see some presenters like Andi Peters and Jeff Brazier no longer sent on location for competitions. The changes have led to staff redundancies and concerns about the future of the shows.
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