Loose Women cuts live studio audience amid ITV budget cuts

Show has been a mainstay of daytime television since 1999

Loose Women is poised to experience an overhaul as one of the show’s key parts is “axed” amid “brutal” budget cuts across ITV.

The show, which features a rotating panel of presenters, has been running since 1999, and has traditionally been filmed in front of a live studio audience – but reports suggest that this has now been cut.

The in-person attendees are considered a vital part of the show, providing applause, laughter, feedback, and exchanges with presenters throughout the live programme. It comes after the show’s output was cut to only 30 weeks a year, just as Lorraine also saw its time slot slashed in half.

“The panelists are really upset over the decision to axe the live studio audience from the show,” a source told the Daily Mail. “It's what sets the series apart from the rest of ITV daytime and now there are massive fears that viewers will switch off completely.”

They continued: “The only concern now is to cut costs and having a live studio audience can be expensive, with the added need for security and a warmup artist.

“Presenters already know how it feels to broadcast the show without an audience because that's what happened during the pandemic, and they all know it creates low mood and lack of atmosphere.”

ITV declined to comment when approached by The Independent.

However, a source said: "While there is a proposal to not have a studio audience for Loose Women from 2026, that doesn't necessarily mean that we’ll never have a studio audience again, it just won’t be in the same way as it is now. At this stage we are still exploring new ways of working and producing the show when we move to a new studio next year."

Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha expressed fear for her job earlier this week as she shared her concerns on social media. Sawalha, who has been a panellist since 1999, addressed the news of cuts on her YouTube channel.

‘Loose Women’ has been running on ITV since 1999 (ITV/Loose Women)

“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.”

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Getting emotional, the former EastEnders actor, 60, continued: “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.

“A lot of my friends and colleagues on this show and have worked for ITV have been there for decades… and I can’t tell you how upsetting it was to see people walking around numb with shock and fear about what they are going to do.”

She added that “television is coming very slowly to its natural end”.