Good Morning Britain in 2020

Yes, he kind of stopped in his tracks after saying weird.

It was confirmed on ITV News Central tonight by Bob Warman that Des is only filling in on GMB and will be back on News Central 'very soon'.

Like Sean Fletcher last week, ‘It sounds like it’s been slowed down.... I love it’

Just out of interest, I watched this morning to see how they would handle the new restrictions that were announced late last night/overnight, and the answer was - they didn't. I switched on at 6.30am, and it was one of the headlines. Then they talked about Keeping Up with the Kardishans finishing, Captain Tom Moore on Life Stories this weekend, Andi Peters did a live competition and Laura did the weather. Then I switched off because I was off to work.

Woeful. I very much doubt I'll be watching again. There's no point if I want the top news stories of the morning, and I only have 30 minutes between 6.30 and 7.00.

And then they wonder why the government won’t go on...

It isn't the best programme to watch if you want to turn on and see a traditional news bulletin. 6 - 6.30 is the headline news, then after 6.30 it turns into a debate/conversation programme.
It is very tabloidy and, in typical ITV Daytime style, it's used to promote the presenters and other ITV shows.

I stopped watching GMB a long time ago. My preference is Sky News.

Same. Enjoyed GMB until COVID but Piers has turned it from an entertaining and lively watch, to a show that spends half it’s time being angry to the point it is uncomfortable to watch and the other half on “uplifting” human interest stories that should be held back until Lorraine. Honestly I miss him being “angry” about vegan sausage rolls - we knew it was an act but it was entertaining.

Couldn't agree more. As embarrassing as this is to admit, I feel it's relevant here. In early March, my morning routine consisted of getting up, having some breakfast while watching GMB and browsing Twitter, before heading off to work. I found that I was leaving the house in an increasingly harrassed and anxious manner over a period of about a fortnight in mid-March. I felt overwhelmed and like a feeling of impending doom that I couldn't shift. I made the decision to stop browsing Twitter, and, most importantly, vowed to stop watching GMB when Piers is presenting. It's had a tangible effect on my general mood/anxiety level. I'm not burying my head in the sand and employing the 'ignorance is bliss' model, as I am still keeping myself informed on the day's news, only now via less tabloid-esque and bombastic means. Piers' constant scaremongering and sensationalism is not just unprofessional and irritating to watch, but actually a real threat to people's mental health. Call me a 'snowflake' if you want but I'm talking from experience. Stopping watching him has helped me feel less anxious in general, and I cannot think of a much grimmer indictment of a presenter on what's supposed to be a happy 'kick off your day with us' breakfast show than that.

Apologies; this is rather more than just slightly off-topic, but I couldn't help but explain my experience after I read the above post.

^I made a very similar decision to cut news and info consumption to the bare minimum as well. Doom scrolling is not a good thing for people’s well-being.

For me best of both worlds and a good way forward would be limiting Piers to 10 minute discussions sprinkled through the programme. 6:30-6:40 have a team discussion, of course dominated by Piers, about whatever then at 6:40 move onto a news item/discussion/guest before the competition and weather. Hit the top of the hour at 7am and get a proper news bulletin with fully formed correspondent packages/live links, then give Piers and Susanna another “10 minute slot” before regional opts. Get the pundits on to do the usual news review before it hits 7:30 and so on. Oh and have Charlotte do a short headlines at 7:30 and 8:30 too.

I think people are rather missing the point, and are perhaps missing why GMB has found itself becoming more popular (with some genuinely high ratings recently, rather than Piers' usual spin). If you want solid news content in the morning, BBC Breakfast and Sky News offer perfectly good shows. What's the point of ITV offering the same thing?

For the first time in a while I've started putting the show on for an hour or so whilst I get ready, and I've actually found it to be perfectly watchable. Do I want a detailed run-through of the day's news for the entire hour I watch the show? Not particularly (or at all if I'm honest). Just catching the headlines works fine for me, and I suspect a lot of people who watch GMB are the same. The rest of the content being topical, news based conversations, debates and interviews makes the show genuinely different from its rivals, and it's still rather entertaining to watch. I'm also perfectly confident that if there was any breaking news, I'd find out about it whilst watching, and that Piers and Susanna would cover it effectively. Breakfast shows have also traditionally tended to repeat mostly the same news and features every hour, if I watched an entire GMB show each hour would feature something different.

This format, in my opinion, is why GMB have started to gain something of a serious foothold recently.



Highly disingenuous and misleading, I feel, to suggest that the government have excluded GMB from its daily broadcast round because the show covers topical conversation and debate in addition to pure news content. Ministers have had absolutely no problem appearing on the current format of the show previous to the pandemic. GMB is on a wider 'blacklist' that includes Newsnight and Channel 4 News; without getting into political discussion as it's not the place - it's nothing to do with GMB's content. Having seen some of Kay Burley's recent interviews, I don't think it'll be long before Sky News (or Burley's slot at least) finds itself on the same list as GMB.