Loose Women will be absent from Wednesday lunchtime schedules as ITV reshuffles its daytime programming to make way for a news special covering the Chancellor's Budget.
The show will not broadcast in its regular 12.30pm slot on Wednesday, October 28, with ITV airing ITV News Special: The Chancellor's Budget instead. This Morning will begin at 10am but finish 15 minutes earlier at 12.15pm to accommodate the coverage of Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey's budget, his first since being appointed in July this year.
Return to Normal Schedule
Programming will resume as usual at 12.30pm on Thursday, October 29, with Loose Women returning to examine real-life issues, current affairs, politics, pop culture, and personal experiences.
Loose Women is frequently removed from schedules due to sporting fixtures and now only broadcasts seasonally following last year's cuts across ITV.
Broader Daytime Cuts
Both Loose Women and Lorraine are only transmitted 30 weeks annually, losing more than 100 of their episodes. Additional modifications include Lorraine episodes running for just 30 minutes and the removal of live studio audiences at Loose Women.
In May 2025, Kevin Lygo, managing director of ITV's Media and Entertainment Division, stated: "Daytime is a really important part of what we do, and these scheduling and production changes will enable us to continue to deliver a schedule providing viewers with the news, debate and discussion they love from the presenters they know and trust."
"As well as generating savings which will allow us to reinvest across the programme budget in other genres. 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."
Panellists Respond
Several Loose Women panellists have commented on the decision, with Gloria Hunniford stating: "The cuts will be behind-the-scenes staff. I think everybody is staying – absolutely."
"We are very concerned about the team, because we have a very large team and they're all very clever and they work b****y hard. It's very sad to see it breaking up."
Television presenter Lorraine Kelly described the reductions to her programme as "heartbreaking" but pledged to remain on her eponymous show despite earlier suggestions she was ready to depart. She remarked at the time: "I don't see me going anywhere until people get fed up, you know? Until people say, I've had enough of that one."
Discussing the cuts which reduce her programme from an hour to 30 minutes and broadcasting for just 30 weeks out of 52, she said her immediate concern was for her affected team. She confessed: "It's really heartbreaking to split up the team, a lot of my team have been with me for more than 20 years and they're my friends. I've grown up with them. They were babies when they started with me and now they've got babies of their own."
"It's been difficult with the cuts, it's been hard. I'm a lot happier about it now but it was honestly and genuinely all about the team. I wasn't annoyed or angry about this for me, it was about the team."
Loose Women airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 12.30pm and returns on Thursday, October 29.
