ITV bosses were forced to think on their feet on Wednesday after a major power outage forced some of its flagship shows off the air.
While making her way into work, Lorraine Kelly revealed that Wednesday’s edition of her show was being pulled due to a power cut in her studio, with Good Morning Britain being extended as a result, to fill the gap in the schedule.
She told her Instagram followers: “I’m on my way to work, but there’s been a little bit of a hoo-hah. There’s a power outage at the studio, so my show won’t be on today.”
“It’s a bit of a shame, I was really looking forward to talking to Sharleen Spiteri from Texas,” she admitted. “But we shall reschedule and it’ll all be fine. And I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“These things happen. Can’t be helped,” she added in her post’s caption.
Lorraine also noted she’d been told that “they’re going to fix it at around 11 o’clock-ish”, meaning This Morning would be airing as usual, albeit “a little bit later”, though this turned out not to be the case.
Instead, a This Morning clip show aired in the daytime staple’s usual slot, while Loose Women was replaced by highlights from the quiz show Tipping Point.
An ITV spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “Following a power cut overnight in the wider area where our Covent Garden studio is based, we are unable to broadcast Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women live today.
“We will return to our normal schedule as soon as possible.”
Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock
Last year saw ITV majorly refreshing its daytime schedule as part of budget cuts.
Good Morning Britain was moved to a different studio, as it switched to being produced by the news broadcaster ITN, while also being extended by half an hour, with Lorraine’s show being reduced as a result.
As part of these changes, Lorraine and Loose Women’s runs were reduced to only 30 weeks out of the year.
These decisions were made as a cost-cutting exercise, as part of a wider review of ITV.
ITV chief Kevin Lygo said at the time: “Daytime has been a core element of ITV’s schedule for over 40 years and these changes will set ITV up to continue to bring viewers award winning news, views and discussion as we enter our eighth decade.”
