Katie Piper does not want ITV to scrap Loose Women's live studio audience
It has been reported that ITV is scrapping Loose Women's live studio audience in 2026 as part of the broadcaster's budget cuts, but the show's panellist Katie Piper thinks it is an "important" element of the show.
Katie Piper does not want ITV to ditch Loose Women's live studio audience amid budget cuts.
In May, the broadcaster announced that the on-air time for its lunchtime talk show would be reduced to 30 weeks instead of 52 weeks to save money, and it has been reported that fans of Loose Women will no longer be able to attend recordings as part of cost-cutting changes.
But Katie - who became a panellist on the programme in 2021 after appearing as a guest several times beforehand - thinks scrapping the live studio audience is a mistake because it will be harder for the panellists to determine what subjects to discuss.
Appearing on the latest episode of Love Island star Amy Hart's Mum's Club podcast, she said: "To have that audience is amazing because it's all about, 'Oh, what are they enjoying? What are they not enjoying? What's the tone?'
"And I think that's important."
Also, as part of ITV's budget cuts, Loose Women will be broadcast for 30 weeks instead of 52 weeks.
But Katie also said in the podcast that the show's scheduling has not been cut, but is instead going back to its original airing style when Loose Women debuted in 1999.
She explained: "They're going through lots of changes.
"I actually joined Loose Women just as we were coming out of lockdown. So I joined when they were still social distancing on the panel, we couldn't sit near each other.
"So I'm, kind of, like a bit of a newbie compared to the OGs because some of the OGs - it's been running 26 years, and some of the women on there have been there for 26 years.
"So I know one of the changes are going to be as of next year, it's only going to be on 30 weeks a year, rather than every single Monday to Friday.
"But a lot of people said to me, 'It has been like that before. There was a time when it was only on term time.'"
Despite the changes coming to ITV daytime - which will also see over 220 jobs being axed - Katie says her fellow panellists, including original members Nadia Sawalha, 60, and Kaye Adams, 62, are staying positive.
She added: "We're a group of resilient women as are our audience, and we'll get through it, and I'm sure we'll still make great telly."
As well as Loose Women, Lorraine will operate on a 30-week "seasonal basis".
Addressing the budget cuts at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August, Kevin Lygo - Managing Director of Media and Entertainment at ITV - revealed the broadcaster will make its daytime shows look the same next year, but he said it will be "challenging".
Lygo, 67, also does not think that the golden days of daytime TV are over at the broadcaster, but stressed there would be changes to match the evolving way people consume entertainment.
He said: "As a commercial broadcast, you earn most of your money with big audiences in peak time.
"That is what advertisers want, and the cost of those has gone up and up and up. Those are the things that drive us commercially.
"Those morning shows have been on forever, and they are brilliant, and they are watched, and they are seven hours of TV a day, but they do cost a great deal of money.
"So we thought, 'Is there a way of keeping those long-standing brands on air and keeping the familiar faces on that give comfort to people?'
"So the editorial brief was if you have a lot less money, which you will do from January, to try to make it so the audience isn’t shocked.
"They should look more or less the same, they are less funded, so that will be challenging to the producers.
"But, unfortunately, that means people doing a perfectly good job will lose their jobs because we need fewer people making them.”
