Eamonn Homes believes ITV 'can't afford' This Morning anymore
Eamonn Holmes and his ex-wife Ruth Langsford fronted ITV's This Morning from 2006 until 2021.
Eamonn Holmes thinks ITV "can't afford" This Morning anymore.
The star - who hosted the magazine show with his ex-wife Ruth Langsford from 2006 until 2021 - thinks the network's brutal January budget cuts, which caused over 220 jobs to be axed, and Loose Women and Lorraine being aired on a "seasonal basis", are a "danger sign" for the show's future.
During TV presenter Hayley Palmer's An Audience With... Eamonn Holmes at London's The Hippodrome Casino on Tuesday night (24.03.26), he said: "Television has really changed. There’s not the budgets associated with programmes anymore, and you’ve got to ask yourselves, ‘Do you even watch TV anymore? And if so, ‘What programmes do you watch?’
"It’s going to change more and more. It’s quite obvious now that TV now can’t afford programmes like This Morning. For the audience, they get from what money they spend on it, that’s a danger sign, which is a great pity."
In November, ITV said it was in talks to sell its Media and Entertainment unit to Sky for £1.6 billion, but last month, it was revealed that talks had slowed.
However, Eamonn, 66, thinks an American media giant will purchase ITV soon.
He said: "What’s going to happen next, you’re going to lose ITV, no doubt about it, and it’ll be sold to an American company, or something, and then they’re going to make it into a streaming company.
"I can’t see ITV lasting much longer."
And the star thinks Channel 4 will also "not exist anymore".
Asked how TV can save itself, Eamonn said: "I don’t think it can save itself. Honestly, 10 years from now, it’ll be all over, but you’ll get it all on Sky or whatever. You will not have general audience stuff like ITV and Channel 4. They’ll not exist anymore."
However, the broadcaster thinks the publicly-funded BBC will survive.
He added: "The BBC is big enough. It’ll have a much-reduced budget, but it’s big enough for radio to be involved in it as well. I think it’ll stay, and there’ll be a national outcry if anything happened to the BBC."
Eamonn and 66-year-old Ruth - who split in May 2024 after 14 years of marriage - fronted the Friday edition of ITV's This Morning from 2006 until 2021, and he loved his time on the programme.
Eamonn said: "I’ve been very lucky to have always enjoyed the jobs. I didn’t have to work on a programme that I didn’t want to be on, which was good."
Cat Deeley, 49, and Ben Shephard, 51, were made the new regular presenters of This Morning following the exit of Holly Willoughby, 45, and Phillip Schofield, 63, in 2023.
And Eamonn thinks Cat and Ben are doing a great job as hosts.
He said: "I don’t see them doing anything wrong."
