ITV bosses have leapt to the defence of presenters Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard amid This Morning’s present rankings disaster.
Cat and Ben started completely presenting the breakfast programme final month, following a prolonged search to seek out Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield’s successors.
Following Phillip’s exit from the station within the wake of admitting to having an affair, Holly left viewers surprised by saying her personal departure in October.
Hosting This Morning for the primary time on March 11, Cat and Ben’s viewership peaked at a million viewers and had a mean viewership of 806,000.
However, within the weeks which have adopted, the presenting duo’s rankings have dipped to as little as 692,500, considerably beneath the 767,000 individuals who watched Holly and Phillip’s closing present collectively in May final yr.
An insider for the present informed The Sun: ‘The hope was that the brand new duo would carry again an air of stability and familiarity again to This Morning.
‘It’s nonetheless comparatively early days, however the indicators are usually not good. After the preliminary flurry of curiosity on their first day within the job, the viewing figures almost instantly dipped again into six figures.’
The supply added: ‘ITV bosses will be hoping they can turn things around before the next big milestone date as they’ve a lot using on Ben and Cat being a hit.’
Speaking to the Mirror, a spokesperson for This Morning defended Patrick Kielty’s spouse Cat and Tipping Point host Ben’s capacity to tug in viewers.
‘Ben and Cat have recorded the best audience reach of the year so far on This Morning with 4.5 million viewers across one week. Viewing figures for January – March 2024 are also up 5 per cent compared to 2023,’ they stated.
While Ben has been a daily fixture on UK telly screens for his total profession, Cat had been spending recent years engaged on reveals within the United States.
Returning to London when her husband landed The Late Late Show at RTÉ final yr, Cat’s return to TV in her native nation was seen as a significant coup for ITV.
‘She is used to internet hosting a glitzy present in America and put with the fitting programme over right here, she could possibly be an absolute rankings winner.
‘There is no love lost between the BBC and ITV for the stealing of stars, so what a great move it would be,’ an insider informed The Daily Mail previous to her being confirmed for This Morning.
