Nadia Sawalha has fought back tears as she addressed the cuts coming to ITV Daytime show Loose Women.
Her comments come after Jane Moore became the first Loose Women regular to break their silence on the cuts that are expected to hit the lunchtime series she appears on.
Earlier this week, in a column for The Sun, Jane reflected on the “efficiencies” that could affect Loose Women, sympathising with those she believes are most likely to “bear the brunt” of any job losses.
Nadia, too, has also addressed the “redundancies” that will take place behind the scenes.
It was announced last week that GMB, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women, will endure cuts to scheduling and production.
Jane Moore on Loose Women cuts
Insisting Loose Women provides company to viewers – who may include stay-at-home mums, office workers on their lunch break, people living with disability, shift workers, students and the elderly – Jane Moore listed how the show has won plaudits for the Facing It Together campaign against domestic violence.
She also stated how Loose Women has been effective at holding political guests to account, and has previously covered important topics such as miscarriage, postnatal depression, menopause, midlife female invisibility and breast cancer awareness.
Reflecting on the range of her on-screen colleagues, Jane wrote: “All interesting, funny women with wisdom to impart and great stories to tell. Yet dismissed by some as though all we’re doing is gossiping over the garden wall after pegging out our washing.”
She also complained about speculation about which panellists may or may not get on with one another. And Jane also lashed out at “keyboard warriors” online.
But she did also make mention of how cuts will affect the daytime broadcast. She quoted another journalist who’d remarked how “deeply depressing” they found it that other female-led programming has been slashed, meaning it may feel like the ‘world is going backwards’ with regards to the visibility of women’s issues.
‘Staff behind the scenes will bear the brunt’
Jane continued by noting it is “the dedicated staff behind the scenes, rather than the on-screen freelancers, who will bear the brunt of the job losses that come with both shows being cut back to term-time viewing only”.
Switching back to commentary about the quality of the programme, she went on: “So much of what I read, day in, day out, are just lazy, anti- female tropes that simply add fuel to the fire of the modern-day misogyny being stoked by the likes of Andrew Tate.”
It’s just one of those things that ITV has to make programme cuts for business reasons.
She also implored any cuts not to be used as “yet another excuse to treat women’s viewpoints as irrelevant”. Jane also suggested: “It’s just one of those things that ITV has to make programme cuts for business reasons.”
Nadia Sawalha fights back tears
Her colleague Nadia Sawalha has also broken her silence in her Coffee Moaning podcast with her husband Mark Adderley.
Speaking to camera, Nadia said: “The brutality of the world, right… What a lot of people don’t realise is, we’re self-employed. Every contract is a new contract. I could be let go tomorrow, in five years, you don’t know, we’re not employees. So I can’t tell you anything other than I’m on till my next contract – it’s never been any different.
“But what’s been brutal, absolutely brutal, over the last week, and honestly I’ve been tearful, 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. You cannot have one without the other. But it’s just the way of the world.”
‘So awful’
She then added: “Inflation is insane, cuts have to be made and I know you guys will be feeling this in your families. Many of you will have partners or yourself who’s been made redundant. Being self-employed, it’s a constant roundabout of being out of work and in work.
“But a lot of my friends and colleagues on this show have worked here for decades. And I can’t tell you how upsetting it was to see people just walking around, numb with shock, fear about what they were going to do. Television is coming slowly, very slowly, to its natural end – like so many professions are. That has been so awful.
“All of us on screen are in work and proud of what we do. But behind the scenes there are people that are really suffering,” she added. “You never see the army of people behind the scenes and how hard they work. So to all my friends and colleagues behind the scenes,” she said, her voice breaking, “that have just got the most huge shock out of the blue, I’m so sorry. Mark knows how much, how upset I’ve been at home about it. I just can’t bear it.”
Who hosts Loose Women now?
Among the hosts who currently anchor the show are Charlene White, Christine Lampard, Ruth Langsford, Kaye Adams and Coleen Nolan.
Read more: Ruth Langsford, Charlene White and Kaye Adams favourites to leave Loose Women as ITV cuts costs
Loose Women airs on ITV1 and ITVX on weekdays from 12.30pm.
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