Katie Piper doesn’t need ITV to ditch Free Girls’s reside studio viewers amid funds cuts.
In Might, the broadcaster introduced that the on-air time for its lunchtime discuss present can be diminished to 30 weeks as an alternative of 52 weeks to economize, and it has been reported that followers of Free Girls will now not have the ability to attend recordings as a part of cost-cutting adjustments.
However Katie – who grew to become a panellist on the programme in 2021 after showing as a visitor a number of instances beforehand – thinks scrapping the reside studio viewers is a mistake as a result of it is going to be more durable for the panellists to find out what topics to debate.
Showing on the most recent episode of Love Island star Amy Hart’s Mum’s Membership podcast, she stated: “To have that viewers is wonderful as a result of it is all about, ‘Oh, what are they having fun with? What are they not having fun with? What is the tone?’
“And I feel that is necessary.”
Additionally, as a part of ITV’s funds cuts, Free Girls will probably be broadcast for 30 weeks as an alternative of 52 weeks.
However Katie additionally stated within the podcast that the present’s scheduling has not been reduce, however is as an alternative going again to its unique airing type when Free Girls debuted in 1999.
She defined: “They are going by way of numerous adjustments.
“I truly joined Free Girls simply as we had been popping out of lockdown. So I joined once they had been nonetheless social distancing on the panel, we could not sit close to one another.
“So I am, sort of, like a little bit of a beginner in comparison with the OGs as a result of among the OGs – it has been operating 26 years, and among the ladies on there have been there for 26 years.
“So I do know one of many adjustments are going to be as of subsequent 12 months, it is solely going to be on 30 weeks a 12 months, relatively than each single Monday to Friday.
“However lots of people stated to me, ‘It has been like that earlier than. There was a time when it was solely on time period time.'”
Regardless of the adjustments coming to ITV daytime – which may also see over 220 jobs being axed – Katie says her fellow panellists, together with unique members Nadia Sawalha, 60, and Kaye Adams, 62, are staying constructive.
She added: “We’re a gaggle of resilient ladies as are our viewers, and we’ll get by way of it, and I am certain we’ll nonetheless make nice telly.”
In addition to Free Girls, Lorraine will function on a 30-week “seasonal foundation”.
Addressing the funds cuts on the Edinburgh TV Pageant in August, Kevin Lygo – Managing Director of Media and Leisure at ITV – revealed the broadcaster will make its daytime reveals look the identical subsequent 12 months, however he stated it is going to be “difficult”.
Lygo, 67, additionally doesn’t assume that the golden days of daytime TV are over on the broadcaster, however pressured there can be adjustments to match the evolving manner individuals devour leisure.
He stated: “As a business broadcast, you earn most of your cash with huge audiences in peak time.
“That’s what advertisers need, and the price of these has gone up and up and up. These are the issues that drive us commercially.
“These morning reveals have been on endlessly, and they’re sensible, and they’re watched, and they’re seven hours of TV a day, however they do price quite a lot of cash.
“So we thought, ‘Is there a manner of holding these long-standing manufacturers on air and holding the acquainted faces on that give consolation to individuals?’
“So the editorial temporary was you probably have quite a bit much less cash, which you’ll do from January, to attempt to make it so the viewers isn’t shocked.
“They need to look roughly the identical, they’re much less funded, in order that will probably be difficult to the producers.
“However, sadly, which means individuals doing a wonderfully good job will lose their jobs as a result of we want fewer individuals making them.”
