This Morning will be cut short today - to make way for ITV News coverage of the Autumn budget.
The ITV show, hosted by Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, usually airs from 10am to 12.30pm on weekdays, but at the start of today's show, the pair confirmed it would end early at 11.15am to allow for an ITV News special. The news special will air from 11.15am, with Holly and Phil's show cut short to allow for more coverage of the big economy news.
It will be the first budget released since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister. Liz Truss' mini budget caused chaos when it was announced just a few weeks ago, but Mr Sunak is hoping this budget will go more smoothly for the party.
As the show kicked off, Holly and Phil confirmed they would be switching over to an ITV News special in just over an hour - but promised lots of exciting content for viewers before that happened.
Holly and Phil hosted proceedings, with Vanessa Feltz joining them to discuss the latest news - some of the chat included the budget, but other stories were more light-hearted, like a life size teddy and the return of Neighbours.
The pair are great friends on the show - and away from it too.
Speaking about their bond - and their WhatsApp groups, Phil said: "We definitely have a boxset-watching group! If someone is watching something and they like it, it’s a place for recommendations…. And there are other ones where we are being a little more outrageous where we tell each other stories and update on things that we’ve done and send pictures of where we are. We have lots of different WhatsApp groups. We’ve got one with Martin our editor too - but nothing outrageous gets sent to him!"
The pair took their usual summer break earlier this year - but said nothing changed when they returned.
"We just have such fun. I mean, in the make-up room in the mornings, everyone's chatting - it’s like ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!’ Everyone knows everything about everybody, and that’s nice…so I always miss that friendship group. But we all stay in touch outside of the show anyway, WhatsApping stuff and keeping up with everyone’s news," Phil said.
"This Morning is more than just a show, it’s such a lovely group of people to come to work with and you do miss that - it’s not really a job! It's more than a job, it’s much much more than that… and I’m not gonna lie, This Morning is one of my support groups and that’s a lovely thing to have."
Holly added: "As Phil says, we really have so much fun on the show. We're one great big family and that's what makes the show so special and unique. We definitely miss that during the summer, but we all stay in touch and will see each other during the break, so it's lovely to be on holiday mode together and catch up outside of the studio."
