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This Morning’s rebrand in chaos after viewers switch off hosts Cat Deeley & Ben Shephard & Morning Live’s audience soars
Since Holly and Philip's exit, producers of the show have had a pool of regular presenters on rotation
THIS Morning’s viewing figures have slumped to the lowest since Holly Willoughby announced she was following Philip Schofield out of the door.
New hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley had a peak of just over 1.03million watching when they took over on March 11 — but by March 26 the figure was down to just 692,500.
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That is the fewest since Holly’s last day on October 10 and lower than Philip’s last day the previous May when 767,00 were watching.
The last episode Ben and Cat hosted, on March 28, brought a slight rise to 830,000.
Yet even that is well below the peak of 1.3million to 1.5million typically enjoyed by BBC1 rival Morning Live.
Last night a TV insider said: “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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“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.”
Philip, 62, left This Morning in May after admitting he had a fling with a much younger runner on the show.
Holly, 43, quit following news of an alleged plot to kidnap and murder her.
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Since then producers of the daytime favourite have had a pool of regular presenters — including Dermot O’Leary, Alison Hammond, Josie Gibson and Rylan Clark — on rotation.
The Sun revealed in December that Ben, 49, was set to quit as one of the presenters of breakfast show Good Morning Britain to co-host with Cat, 47, who has been working mostly in the US for the past 18 years.
Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard make their debut on This Morning
They were brought in just as the BBC’s Morning Live moved its start date forward to steal a march on This Morning, and as a result had a peak of 1.57million for the March 1 episode.
A spokesperson for This Morning said: "Ben and Cat have recorded the best audience reach of the year so far with 4.5 million viewers across one week.
"Viewing figures for Jan - March are also up 5% year on year."
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A THREE SPIRIT
THIS Morning hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary were left in hysterics yesterday by a US couple claiming to be in a throuple with the ghost of a British soldier.
Alison joked of the bizarre relationship: “There’s three in the bed but one of them is dead.”
Clairvoyant Rebekah Carmichael claimed that a Welsh spirit called Rupert approached her in North Carolina in 2020.
He was said to be 6ft 6in tall with blond hair and blue eyes and was part of the British Army in pre-revolution America.
He was apparently worried she was walking alone by the house he would have been at in 1781.
They quickly struck up a “relationship” before she later hooked up with ghost hunter Katharyn Birgfeld who became convinced he was real after a series of paranormal tests.
Rebekah said she considered the trio to have a polyamorous relationship as she shares a connection with the other two — while Katharyn and Rupert have a strictly platonic set-up.
The ITV hosts asked if Rupert was there as an extra chair was laid out at their end, to which Rebekah replied: “He’s here in spirit.”
After seeing an AI image of Rupert’s face, the hosts claimed he bore a striking resemblance to This Morning’s Dr Scott Miller.
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