Eamonn Holmes has said he think his ex-wife Ruth Langsford will soon be out of a job as he gave a blistering verdict on the future of ITV‘s Loose Women and This Morning.
The Irish presenter, 66, hosted the ITV morning show with Ruth from 2006 until 2021 – but he believes the broadcaster can no longer afford it.
Back in January, brutal ITV budget cuts saw over 220 jobs axed and Loose Women and Lorraine to be aired only on a ‘seasonal basis’.
Now Eamonn has claimed these cuts are a ‘danger sign’ for the future of This Morning and he even believes it could spell the end of ITV entirely.
During TV presenter Hayley Palmer’s An Audience With… Eamonn Holmes at London‘s The Hippodrome Casino on Tuesday night, he said: ‘Television has really changed. There’s not the budgets associated with programmes anymore, and you’ve got to ask yourselves, “Do you even watch TV anymore?” And if so, “What programmes do you watch?”
‘It’s going to change more and more. It’s quite obvious now that TV now can’t afford programmes like This Morning. For the audience they get from what money they spend on it, that’s a danger sign, which is a great pity.’
Eamonn Holmes has said he think his ex-wife Ruth Langsford will soon be out of a job as he gave a blistering verdict on the future of ITV’s Loose Women and This Morning
In November, ITV said it was in talks to sell its Media and Entertainment unit to Sky for £1.6billion, but last month, it was revealed that talks had slowed.
However, Eamonn thinks an American media giant will purchase ITV soon.
He said: ‘What’s going to happen next, you’re going to lose ITV, no doubt about it, and it’ll be sold to an American company, or something, and then they’re going to make it into a streaming company. I can’t see ITV lasting much longer.’
He also said he believes Channel 4 will also ‘not exist anymore’.
Asked how TV can save itself, Eamonn said: ‘I don’t think it can save itself. Honestly, 10 years from now, it’ll be all over, but you’ll get it all on Sky or whatever. You will not have general audience stuff like ITV and Channel 4. They’ll not exist anymore.’
However, the broadcaster thinks the publicly-funded BBC will survive.
He added: ‘The BBC is big enough. It’ll have a much-reduced budget, but it’s big enough for radio to be involved in it as well. I think it’ll stay, and there’ll be a national outcry if anything happened to the BBC.’
Eamonn and Ruth – who split in May 2024 after 14 years of marriage – fronted the Friday edition of ITV’s This Morning from 2006 until 2021.
‘I’ve been very lucky to have always enjoyed the jobs,’ he said of his time there. ‘I didn’t have to work on a programme that I didn’t want to be on, which was good.’
Cat Deeley, 49, and Ben Shephard, 51, were made the new regular presenters of This Morning following the exit of Holly Willoughby, 45, and Phillip Schofield, 63, in 2023.
Elsewhere during the interview on Tuesday, Eamonn revealed he stormed out of a chat with singing superstar Mariah Carey, after she turned up four hours late and decided to take a nap instead of starting their chat.
Eamonn said he was told by Mariah’s team that she was ‘tired’ as she’d woken up at 9am, leaving him unimpressed as he’d been awake five hours earlier.
The Irish presenter, 66, hosted the ITV morning show with Ruth from 2006 until 2021 – but he believes the broadcaster can no longer afford it (Pictured together in 2022)
In hilarious fashion, the GB News star said he decided to lie down on the sofa beside her, so they could complete the interview.
It was a move that sparked fury from Mariah’s team, and in response Eamonn declared he was cancelling the interview and walked out.
Eamonn regaled tales from some of his most iconic interviews after more than 40 years working in TV.
He revealed: ‘Say the interview was at 11 o’clock in the morning, and she wasn’t there she didn’t turn up, 12 o’clock, one o’clock, they said “hang on, she’ll be here, she’ll be here”.
‘Bearing in mind I’ve been up from four o’clock that particular day so I’m going, “what the hell’s going on here,” so I said “right if she’s not here in the next 10 minutes I’m going”.’
Eamonn said Mariah eventually arrived four hours late, revealing: ‘So she comes through the door, and she immediately lies down on the chaise-longue, and closes her eyes. And I said “what the f**k is going on here?” They said “Ms Carey is very tired, she’s very tired, she’s been up from nine o’clock this morning”.
‘I said “she’s been up from f*****g nine o’clock I’ve been up from four!” and so I walked over and lay down beside her. I wouldn’t do it now, because things have changed.’
The move sparked fury from Mariah’s team, but he hit back: ‘Ms Carey’s tired, I’ve been up earlier than she has, I’m tired too, so we’re both going to lie down here.
‘Oh my God there were ruptions about this! So I said look, “one way this interview is happening, either we both lie down, or we both sit up”.
‘They said “well Ms Carey certainly won’t be sitting up,” so I said “well Mr Holmes certainly won’t be doing the interview,” and I tiddled off then.’
