A former Loose Women panellist has revealed the real reason ITV viewers are switching off from the chat show and episodes are being slashed.

Carol McGiffin, 65, who featured on the show on and off from 2000 until 2023, said it is suffering because it is ‘rubbish’ – not because of competition with streaming.

She also blasted producers as being out of touch, casting influencers to try to bring in younger viewers which she said is ‘ridiculous’ and will not work.

Her comments come amid scheduling chaos at ITV, after it was announced in May both Loose Women and Lorraine would air only 30 weeks per year, not year-round.

Loose Women will also lose its live studio audience to save costs, MailOnline revealed last month – while Lorraine’s run time was slashed from an hour to 30 minutes.

ITV will also axe more than 220 jobs – nearly half its daytime TV staff, who also work on Good Morning Britain and This Morning.

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Carol McGiffin (pictured), 65, who featured on the show on and off from 2000 until 2023, said it is suffering because it is ‘rubbish’ – not because of competition with streaming

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She also blasted producers as being out of touch, casting influencers to try to bring in younger viewers which she said is ‘ridiculous’ and will not work. Pictured: Carol, second right, with L-R Christine Lampard, Nadia Sawalha and Kaye Adams on Loose Women in 2019

Speaking on Dan Wootton’s Outspoken podcast, Carol said: ‘They can stand there and say, “The reason that we’re suffering is because of online TV. People don’t watch TV anymore, they go online for news or entertainment or anything, or streaming services”.

‘Maybe it’s just because it’s rubbish and they just aren’t very good at it anymore. They don’t consider that.’

Carol took a break from Loose Women in 2013, featuring on the twelfth series of Celebrity Big Brother, before returning to the panel in 2018.

The broadcaster, who then made her second and final departure from the show in 2023, added: ‘When I went back to Loose Women, I thought, “This is great, we might be able to make Loose Women great again.”

‘But it just proved completely impossible.’

Venturing the reason behind viewers changing channels, she continued: ‘They really don’t know what people want and they tell them what they want all the time and they give it to them and force it down their throats.

‘That’s probably why.’

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Carol (pictured on Loose Women in 2008 with L-R Jackie Brambles, Coleen Nolan and Denise Welch) took a break from Loose Women in 2013, featuring on the twelfth series of Celebrity Big Brother, before returning to the panel in 2018

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Love Island star Olivia Attwood (pictured), 34, who appeared on the ITV2 dating show in 2017, joined Loose Women as a regular panellist in 2023

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Influencer GK Barry (pictured), 25, joined the chat show in 2024, making her the programme’s youngest ever panellist since it began in 1999

Carol finished: ‘A lot of young people never watch television.

‘The fact that ITV thinks, “If we get all these young influencers on, everyone’s going to start watching daytime TV”, is just ridiculous.’

Love Island star Olivia Attwood, 34, who appeared on the ITV2 dating show in 2017, joined Loose Women as a regular panellist in 2023.

Influencer GK Barry, 25, joined the chat show in 2024, making her the programme’s youngest ever panellist since it began in 1999.

Carol exited Loose Women in 2023 after a bizarre radio rant claiming the Covid pandemic was a World Health Organisation plot to take over every government, MailOnline revealed at the time.

She had announced in May that year she was leaving the lunchtime show, protesting ITV insisted she sign a contract with clauses that were ‘totally unjust and unworkable’.

The Mail On Sunday then disclosed a free speech row was at the centre of her departure, after a backlash over her tirade in an interview on TNT talk radio.

Speaking about her dramatic exit, Carol told Women’s Own magazine in December 2023: ‘No, I don’t miss Loose Women at all.

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Carol (pictured on Loose Women in 2022) exited Loose Women in 2023 after a bizarre radio rant claiming the Covid pandemic was a World Health Organisation plot to take over every government, MailOnline revealed at the time

‘My pronouns are P and Off. It’s just very woke and I can’t deal with the wokeness.

‘That’s not why I am not there. I am not there because of other stuff.’

She added she misses her co-stars but ‘doesn’t miss being on TV’.

MailOnline contacted ITV at the time for comment about this scathing attack.

A spokesperson previously said, about the contract issue: ‘ITV will not comment on speculation around individual contracts.

‘We understand Carol has decided to leave Loose Women and we wish her well.’

But Carol has not been the only Loose Women star to speak out on the cuts at ITV, with current panellists also weighing in.

Kaye Adams, 62, who has been a panellist on the daytime show since its inception, has revealed she has had ‘sleepless nights’ since the cuts were confirmed.

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Kaye Adams (pictured on Loose Women last year), 62, who has been a panellist on the daytime show since its inception, has revealed she has had ‘sleepless nights’ since the cuts were confirmed

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Speaking on her podcast, How To Be 60, early last month, Kaye revealed the cuts ‘came out of the blue’, adding her ‘life’s just imploded’. Pictured: Kaye with Loose Women co-star Nadia Sawalha in 1999

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Nadia Sawalha (left, in her YouTube video speaking out on the cuts), 60, has also hit out at the dramatic changes, choking back tears earlier this year as she described scenes of ‘shock and fear’ in the ITV corridors

Speaking on her podcast, How To Be 60, early last month, Kaye revealed the cuts ‘came out of the blue’, adding her ‘life’s just imploded’.

She admitted even she does not know what will happen to her or her fellow panellists’ jobs in the wake of the cuts.

Nadia Sawalha, 60, has also hit out at the dramatic changes, choking back tears earlier this year as she described scenes of ‘shock and fear’ in the ITV corridors.

One of the show’s most popular presenters, also present from its first series, she also admitted even she does not know her fate on the show.

Nadia explained she is self-employed and ‘could be let go tomorrow’.

Speaking alongside her husband Mark Adderley on the couple’s YouTube channel she explained: ‘Do you know what? At the moment, all of us on screen are in work and are proud of what we do.

‘But 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.’

Struggling to hold back her tears, Nadia added: ‘So, to all my friends and colleagues behind the scenes who have just got a huge shock out of the blue: I’m so sorry.’

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Sue Cleaver (pictured on Loose Women last month), 61, has similarly admitted ‘we’re all devastated’ and ‘people are struggling’ amid the cuts ‘affecting people’s lives’

Sue Cleaver, 61, has similarly admitted ‘we’re all devastated’ and ‘people are struggling’ amid the cuts ‘affecting people’s lives’.

The former Coronation Street star and regular panellist told The Express: ‘We’ve been through it at Corrie as well and these are people’s lives and I just feel very much for all the production and the crew because people are struggling.

‘It’s affecting young families and it’s obviously been a pretty hard time for people to hear that.

‘But, you know, we have to just embrace change, and we’ll see what happens.’

Carol’s remarks on the cuts come after she spoke out on other aspects of her time on the panel too – including ITV’s exhausting dress code.

According to Carol, during her 23-year stint on the show, the Loose ladies were given some rules on what they could and could not wear while live to the nation.

Writing in her column for Best magazine last month, Carol said: ‘We went from wearing our own clothes to being bought stuff to adhere to ludicrous wardrobe policies like “no arms on show”…

‘Presumably because our ageing biceps were morphing into bingo wings which the (male) boss at the time had decided were offensive.

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Carol’s (pictured on Loose Women in 2023) remarks on the cuts come after she spoke out on other aspects of her time on the panel too – including ITV’s exhausting dress code

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According to Carol (second left, with Loose Women co-stars in 2009), during her 23-year stint on the show, the Loose ladies were given some rules on what they could and could not wear while live to the nation

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‘Another female(!) boss once ordered all the women to wear high heels as well.

‘I always loathed being “dressed” or “styled” as they preferred to call it.

‘You always had to be coordinated up to the eyeballs in nice slacks, wrap dresses or boiler suits.’

She added: ‘It used to make me shudder, nearly as much as the insane amount of waste on unimaginable amounts of clothes that had mostly only been worn once.’

The same column had also seen her previously explain her departure in May 2023: ‘I haven’t been on the show for two months now because I’ve had to step away from it.

‘It was causing me too much stress, which was mostly down to a difficult contract issue I’d been challenging since January.

‘The problem was, ITV were insisting, for the first time since I went back in 2018, that if I wanted to carry on doing the show, I would have to sign a contract that was totally unjust and unworkable for me, so I had to say no thanks.

‘And I know it looks like I’ve thrown my toys out of the pram, but the whole saga was affecting my health.’