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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Tina Campbell

This Morning loses 100,000 viewers in a week amid Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby feud

This Morning is facing a ratings crisis amid presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby’s much publicised feud.

Monday saw the ITV daytime show drop an almost unprecedented 20 per cent to 724,000 compared to the same day last week.

While Tuesday’s episode did slightly better, with an average of 663,000 viewers, yesterday’s attracted only 551,000 - down from 647,000 on Wednesday last week. The peak viewership also reduced significantly, from 905,000 to 683,000.

The Standard has contacted a representative for This Morning for comment.

Schofield, 61, is said to be resisting calls to quit despite his popularity with the show’s viewers taking a hit following his fall out with former best friend Willoughby, 42.

Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were once the best of friends and regularly went on holiday together (ITV)

A number of famous faces have weighed in on the dispute, including Scottish TV presenter Lorraine Kelly.

The 63-year-old presenter of ITV’s Lorraine said she thought it would be “sad” if either Schofield or Willoughby walked away and thought it “unlikely”.

“I would be sad if they left the show but I don’t think that is ever likely to happen and I think they’re just getting on with it,”she told The Sun.

Former This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes, 63, was of a different opinion however and launched a blistering attack on Schofield and Willoughby.

Speaking on GB News, he insisted that regardless of who was presenting the show, it would continue with or without them.

He said: “They may or may not be together on the telly today. The public surely will suss that there’s no chemistry, that it’s a broken fit between the two of them and that This Morning does not depend on who presents it.

“It’s an institution, it will carry on no matter who presents it and anyone can check the viewing figures, there’s no difference between whether they present it or anyone else.”

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