Loose Women to lose studio audience

The show previously aired without a live studio audience during Covid-19…

Reports today suggest that as part of the ITV Daytime budget cuts Loose Women may be seeing its studio audience axed.

The Mirror states, ‘ITV have decided to axe a huge part of Loose Women in a desperate bid to save money, it has been reported. It has been claimed that the show will be scrapping its live studio audience when it returns with a reduced schedule next year.’

TV Critic Vivian Summers doesn’t think it’s such a bad move. “During the coronavirus pandemic the show aired without an audience, and it was lovely to not have whooping, clapping and cheering over the guests and panel speaking. Likewise the show got on with discussions rather than some panellists playing up to the audience for appreciation. I imagine the new studios the show is moving to might also be smaller so may not be able to fit in an audience area.”

Insiders at the cash-saving broadcaster, which has also revamped its soap opera output for 2026, note that the decision to ditch the studio audience is mainly a cost-saving measure, with the audience involvement in the show operated by an independent company who oversee the ticket allocation and also provides security and a warmup comedian as part of the operation.

The Loose Women audience at The London Studios / ITV 2015

Loose Women is also currently made at Television Centre, which is operated by BBC Studioworks. ITV closed their own in-house centre, The London Studios, in 2018 as part of an earlier cost-saving exercise.

Since its launch in 1999 Loose Women has always had a studio audience – bar the Covid-19 exception – and has been produced at a number of ITV Centres including at Granada in Manchester and Anglia in Norwich. Former daytime series to feature an audience include Lunch Box (ATV), Daytime Live (Thames), The Time, The Place (Anglia), Jeremy Kyle (Granada), Lunchtime with Wogan (ATV) and Trisha with Trisha Goddard (Anglia). However, it seems with ever decreasing ratings for ITV Daytime, and a lower advertising revenue, those kind of programmes are a thing of the past.

MailOnline report that the regulars on the show are ‘upset’ about the loss of the audience from the programme as they believe it gives Loose Women a distinct offering none of the other ITV Daytime formats provide.

The Audience at Loose Women at The London Studios / ITV 2015