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• Thu May 29 2025

Loose Women's Nadia Sawalha brands ITV cuts 'brutal'

14 hours ago Share Save Helen Bushby Culture reporter Share Save

Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

Loose Women panellist Nadia Sawalha has said ITV's cuts to its daytime schedule came "out of the blue" and have been "absolutely brutal" for those working on the show. ITV announced last week it was axing more than 220 jobs and making cuts to shows including Loose Women and Lorraine. Speaking on her YouTube channel, Sawalha said: "What's been brutal, absolutely brutal, over the last week, honestly I feel tearful about it, is that hundreds of people... are going to be made redundant out of the blue, these are all the people behind the scenes that support us in every way." There have been reports that the pool of panellists will be reduced, and Sawalha said she "could be let go tomorrow, [or] I could be let go in five years".

In an announcement last week, ITV boss Kevin Lygo stressed that daytime is "a really important part" of its programming, and said he recognised that the plans "will have an impact on staff".

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In her video, Sawalha, who has also appeared in EastEnders, Dancing on Ice and The Bill, said Loose Women and Lorraine had been "highly successful", but that she accepted inflation was "insane, and cuts have to be made", before becoming emotional. "Behind the scenes there are people that are really suffering, and what you don't realise is when you attack the show you attack them, because you never see all the army of people behind the scenes and how hard they work," she said. "So to all my friends and colleagues behind the scenes that have just got a huge shock out of the blue, I'm so sorry." She added that she thought some conversations about the cuts had been "misogynistic", stressing the impact of the cuts on many of her friends and colleagues on the show, who have worked there for decades. "I can't tell you how upsetting it was to see people walking around numb with shock and fear about what they are going to do... [when] television is coming very slowly to its natural end." Speaking from her own perspective, she added: "What people don't realise at Loose Women is that we're self-employed. I am self-employed. Every contract is a new contract. "I could be let go tomorrow, I could be let go in five years, you don't know because we're not employees."

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