Lorraine Kelly confronts fear over audience deserting her after ITV show is slashed

Lorraine Kelly has expressed her hope that her audience won't abandon her once her morning TV show is reduced next year. Fans were shocked earlier this year when ITV announced it was making drastic changes to the day time schedule in a bid to save money.

And morning show Lorraine was caught in the crossfire - seeing it's run time carved in half from on hour to 30 minutes. Good Morning Britain is also set to bulldoze over episodes for 22 weeks of the year, leaving the 66-year-old Scottish host with just 30, 30-minute slots to fill over the course of the year.

She will also be forced to helm her show five days per week in the months that she is on the air as her trusty stand ins Ranvir Singh and Christine Lampard are said to have been axed from the line-up. The shake up kicks in next month - with Loose Women seeing similar changes as it is also being reduced in hours and episodes.

While some TV hosts may panic that the big changes could leave them without an audience, Lorraine is remaining hopeful that her own fans won't desert her. She told the Evening Standard: "Hopefully the audience will still stay with us, because that's the most important thing to me, is you know, that the audience are still enjoying what I do and the fact that people are so kind and they still watch after all these years."

She went on to insist she considers her viewers like friends, commenting: "It's something that I never, ever take for granted and I never take any, any of this for granted. I really don't, because it's, it's an honour." And she added: "The show continues and obviously it's only going to be the half hour… but you know what, we're still here. We're still here."

Following her comments, the Daily Mail reported that slashing Lorraine and Loose Women's hours will save resources and funds that ITV can reinvest into new dramas. A source told the outlet: "There is a need to cost save but also so that the right money can go to the right shows and with everything getting more expensive these things have to be looked at."

And they went on to stress: "Christine and Ranvir remain part of the ITV daytime family." The new points come after Lorraine herself confessed she was not surprised when a sledgehammer was taken to the foundations of her show - even though it frequently rated higher with audience figures than This Morning.

Asked if the news came as a surprise, she told The Mirror: "Not really. I mean, it's kind of indicative of the whole industry, really. I'm just glad that we're still there. We've still managed to save some jobs. A lot of my team are going to This Morning. And so yeah, it's not my decision. It wasn't a decision that I made."

But in an earlier chat on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, she suggested she was devastated by the changes. She revealed: "I was disappointed, of course I was. This is the world that we live in now. Things have to change, I mean, I've been through so many regime changes in my life.

"For me, this is just another one, but it's seismic. The thing that has upset me the most is the fact that we've got this great team, and obviously, that's not going to be in place next year because jobs will go. Hopefully I'll be able to hang on to some of these amazing people - that's my aim. It's very, very sad. It really is."

Meanwhile, Dr Hilary Jones recently he will quit as Lorraine's medical expert due to the changes. He told The Sun on Sunday: "I'm still working there until December 31 and then I'm a free agent. It's liberating from the constraints of a news programme presenter. I'll probably come back as a guest presenter now and then.

"People are being very sensitive to the fact that some people are having to move on. A lot of people are being redeployed elsewhere or in the same role. ITV, like everyone else, are having to make changes."

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