Coleen Nolan voices support for colleagues amid ITV cuts
Coleen Nolan has expressed concern for her Loose Women colleagues.
Coleen Nolan thinks ITV's recent cuts are having a "devastating" impact on Loose Women staff.
The 60-year-old singer has starred on the daytime TV talk-show since 2000, and Coleen admits that her colleagues have been disturbed by the budget cuts at ITV.
She told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "The crew have become family. I’ve watched them grow. Some of our runners from back in the day are producers, married with kids. I’ve shared my life with them. They’re in limbo, not knowing what they’re going to do."
Coleen acknowledged that Loose Women will be "very different" moving forwards.
She said: "Loose Women isn’t ending, which I’m so thankful for, but it’s changing.
"It’s going to be very different in the respect of the size of the crew, but it’s still running. Which it should be – there isn’t another show that celebrates and supports all women of every size, age, whatever. But it’s heartbreaking to see some of my colleagues not knowing what they’re going to do. Many of them have young families and mortgages."
In May, Nadia Sawalha revealed that she was feeling "tearful" about budget cuts at ITV.
The TV star - who previously starred on shows such as EastEnders, The Bill and Casualty - said on her YouTube channel: "What people don’t realise at Loose Women is that we’re self-employed, I am self-employed. Every contract is a new contract.
"I could be let go tomorrow, I could be let go in five years - you don’t know because we’re not employees."
Nadia admitted that she had even shed tears over the cuts.
The actress said: "What’s been brutal, absolutely brutal, over the last week, honestly I feel tearful about it, is that hundreds of people … are going to be made redundant out of the blue, these are all the people behind the scenes that support us in every way."
Meanwhile, Kevin Lygo, the managing director of ITV’s Media and Entertainment Division, recently 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."
