Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley returned to live television on Thursday (November 5) after a power cut disrupted ITV's daytime schedule, thanking the team behind This Morning for getting the programme back on air. The presenters opened the show with a joke about the outage that had prevented the broadcast the previous day.
Return After Power Cut Chaos
The power cut, which affected the area around ITV's Covent Garden studio, also forced Lorraine and Loose Women off air on Wednesday (November 4). ITV addressed the disruption in a statement on social media at the time, saying: "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."
Good Morning Britain stayed on air until 10am, with presenters Susanna Reid and Ed Balls telling viewers about the outage during their live broadcast. A pre-recorded selection of This Morning's best bits then replaced its usual live edition, while Loose Women was also unable to broadcast live.
Presenters Thank Team
As the programmes returned to normal today, Cat opened the show with a joke about the problem being resolved. She said: "Hello there and welcome to your Thursday's This Morning. Back up and running, someone's stuck 50p in the meter, we are all good to go."
Ben explained: "There was a power cut across the whole of Covent Garden apparently, which meant that we weren't on air. But despite that, your hair is looking rather lovely this week." The pair then shared how Cat had managed to get her hair done despite the disruption, with Ben quipping: "Even when there's a power cut, you still get our hair done."
Cat replied: "There was one lamp working, so we did it by lamp light; the water was still working at that point, and then I put my highlights in."
Back to Normal Schedule
Turning to the work needed to bring the programme back, Ben said: "Thank you to the team that managed to get everything back up and running again because it was a lot of hard work. But fingers crossed we are fully charged, and we are ready to go." Cat added: "We are, and we've got a lot coming up for you over the next two hours."
The affected programmes were expected to return to their usual slots on Thursday, with This Morning airing weekdays at 10am on ITV.
