ITV has confirmed that it has dropped Lorraine and Loose Women with immediate effect as it bids to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak on TV production.
Earlier it was revealed that Good Morning Britain has been extended by an hour - airing from 6am to 10am - and now it has emerged that the measure will become the new norm.
At 9am each morning Lorraine Kelly will join Piers Morgan to anchor the last hour of GMB live as the show switches to providing complete coverage of the global pandemic, before This Morning takes over at 10am.
An ITV spokesman said: "We're focusing our efforts on providing to viewers the latest news on the rapidly changing situation which aims to offer some stability and continuity in all our lives whilst so many of us are at home right now. That's why we have taken this tough decision to protect our GMB News programme in the morning and keep This Morning on air for as long as possible.
"From Monday we will be running an extended version of Good Morning Britain from 0600 until 10am. At 9am Lorraine Kelly will join Piers in the GMB studio for the last hour and then hand straight over to the This Morning studio with Phillip and Holly as usual running from 10am until 12.30pm. We will then run some of our most favourite repeat episodes of Loose Women from 12.30pm to 1.30pm to give viewers something to smile about each day at lunchtime.
"We have been reducing our crew numbers over the last week and these changes will enable us to reduce them further and help us build further resilience with the aim of Daytime content continuing to air for as long as possible. Safeguarding the well-being of everyone involved with our programmes is our priority and in this dynamically developing situation we will obviously continue to review these new arrangements on a day by day basis and follow at all times the latest PHE and WHO guidelines."
Ratings for ITV's daytime programming saw a sharp rise last week as more members of the British public began to isolate at home.
Neil Wilkes
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