This Morning

Originally that was the case but the dispute was resolved quickly. I think it was just a more effective solution as all resources were put into the Iraq War, however once a couple of weeks had passed the ITV NC were opting out of GMTV at 7:30am when it was showing lighter items. Worth noting that many ITN and GMTV reporters were on screen at all times. I do recall one occasion when Richard Gaisford was on the phone to the BBC, however I believe that was something else.

I think it was such big news considering she'd said only a few weeks back that there wouldn't be an election that it was the right call. Having Eamonn on this morning helped and with it being a live show it gives ITN time to get ready one would assume and then clearance from HQ. I think because of the nature of the news it would seem odd to have just continued to front the rolling coverage from This Morning team, regardless of Eamonn's stature.

Also there's the logistics of having the This Morning team suddenly switch to doing rolling news. Even if the guys at ITN could somehow do the production bits and pass them on to ITV it would be far from ideal. I doubt the studio that This Morning is done from even has more than a couple of OS lines let alone the other facilities that an ITN studio has sitting there ready.

Eamon's great at news, but needs the right environment and team

Yup. Eamonn might have been the right man, but This Morning certainly wasn't the right show/studio. As mentioned, having him on a live show that was scheduled anyway mostly served to allow the news to be broken without actually cutting to the news studio.

Well, indeed. It would be like the news breaking during Football Focus and them carrying on instead of BBC News because Dan Walker also presents a news programme.

IIRC It was only time GMTV was simulcast on ITV News Channel. At other times the morning news was usually repeated twice between 6&7 and then the news channel started running its own bulletins both before and during the Theatre of News era

With no disrespect to Phillip Schofield, I would suggest that they would have gone to ITN much more quickly on an occasion when he was presenting. The way that Eamonn switched into news mode at the drop of a hat was quite something, particularly with Nick Ferrari - no stranger to breaking news coverage himself - as a guest.

It's not obvious from the ITV Hub recording - did they drop the sponsorship bumper coming out of the break before taking the May press conference? On the basis that news can't be sponsored I guess they might have been on dodgy ground, even though it's not a news programme.

Another issue with doing rolling news from the TM studio is the lack of access to the newswires etc for the presenter that would normally be available for them to get up to speed and keep abreast of what is happenning while VTs are playing etc.

It was bad timing as they cut to the local weather as she appeared. After the weather sponsor they came straight back without a sting and cut to May.

Taking a quick look on the ITV Hub, a couple of nice mentions of ITN there from Eamonn! Very rare for anyone to mention ITN by name anymore (apart from Julian on UTV back in the days of IVC there), but Eamonn throwing to the news from ITN at the end of the programme!

Watching it back on ITV Hub, they were punching above their weight by trying to tackle the subject on This Morning with panellists on straight away before they had any analysis from political correspondents. They should have thrown straight to ITV News following Theresa May's speech.

I also think it was completely unnecessary to speculate on her health so much before the announcement was made - yes, it was also mentioned by Victoria Derbyshire on the BBC but Eamonn and Ruth seemed to put it at the forefront of their speculation.

Looks like they were unfortunate with the timing as the door to Number 10 started opening just as they threw to the weather (which was cut out of the ITV Hub recording).

Yes - I have to concede that This Morning would not have been properly equipped to continue with the live coverage (especially at such short notice) for a further hour...even with Eamonn.

On a side note, Gordon Ramsay's pre-recorded interview will be aired on tomorrow's show.

Looks like the ITV Hub has part of the speech the live viewers would have missed.