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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zara Woodcock

BBC Breakfast's Jon Kay replaced in shake-up as bosses provide all-female host line-up

BBC Breakfast host Jon Kay was replaced in a temporary shake-up which saw the series provide all-female hosts.

Jon usually presents the show from Monday to Wednesday weekly but was absent from the red sofa on January 25.

Instead, stand-in host, Nina Warhurst, took on his usual role alongside his co-host Sally Nugent.

Weather girl Carol Kirkwood was on deck to provide updates on the nationwide chill.

Reporter Ben Boulous was out on location at a picket line and John Watson provided the sports updates.

The refreshing display of an all female presenting line-up comes after a former host said BBC Breakfast was a 'fairly sexist' place to work during the 80s.

Nina Warhurst and Sally Nugent presented the show on Wednesday (BBC)

Nick Ross, 75, was the show's original presenter and worked alongside Selina Scott and was among the stars sharing their memories when it prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

He explained: "As a rule, if a woman was there it was thought she was there because she was good-looking.

"But if a bloke was there, he was perceived to be there because he was a good journalist.

"There's no question that Selina Scott suffered quite a bit of that."

Jon Kay was absent from the red sofa (BBC)

Nick added he was sceptical of mixing hard news and lighter content, saying: "I was uncomfortable, frankly snobbish, about it. I argued against having an astrologer on. But the mix worked brilliantly. I even came to like Russell Grant ."

Meanwhile, it was recently revealed the rival show Good Morning Britain is closing the gap on BBC Breakfast thanks to its 'supergroup' of presenters.

Teaming up Susanna Reid with Martin Lewis, Richard Madeley, Ed Balls, Adil Ray and Rob Rinder has provided a ratings boost.

It comes after rival show GMB enjoyed a ratings boost (ITV)

GMB has relished in its second-best start to the year since it began in 2014, with ratings up 7% compared to the year before.

Since the turn of the year, the show has pulled in an average of 610,000 viewers compared to 1.1million over on the BBC.

Sources at ITV revealed they are satisfied by the stats, with GMB up by 40,000 viewers and the BBC down 86,000 in the same period.

One explained: “When GMB was launched, ratings were less than 25 percent of BBC Breakfast…at its peak this year, this has increased to over 60 per cent."

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