Loose Women's Jane Moore hits out at 'snooty reaction' to ITV's brutal daytime cuts

Jane Moore has blasted the "snooty reaction" of some pundits at the announcement Loose Women is to be cut back to 30 weeks of the year.

The journalist, who claims ITV intends to use money it will save with the move by investing in more sport programmes, said she was "immensely disappointed" to see comments she called "lazy misogyny". She wrote: "One male commentator for a broadsheet casually dismissed Loose Women — on air for 25 years — as a 'gabfest'... The snooty reaction from some quarters was immensely disappointing."

Jane, 63, does not name the broadsheet - or commentator - in her opinion piece but goes onto list several examples of moments on Loose Women where key political figures have been held to account.

Writing for The Sun, the journalist said: "Clearly he hadn’t seen the episode when Janet Street Porter turned to then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and demanded: 'Why do you hate pensioners?'... Or when a squirming Nigel Farage was put on the spot and declared afterwards 'that was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done.'"

Loose Women, a staple on ITV since 2000, also won a Royal Television Society award earlier this year for its Facing It Together campaign against domestic violence.

But it and Lorraine are casualties of a major ITV shake-up, as both daytime programmes will only run 30 weeks of the year from 2026. It is thought the move will save the network money but Jane, who was on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! last year, understands cash will go into sport programmes instead.

The experienced broadcaster added: "When it was announced that one of the precious few, all-female shows was being cut back to 30 weeks a year to save money for, among other things, more sport, the snooty reaction from some quarters was immensely disappointing.

"We always cover the day’s main news stories, as well as ­important topics such as, among many other things, miscarriage, post-natal depression, menopause, midlife female invisibility (oh the irony) and breast cancer awareness."

Jane has been a regular on Loose Women since 2013 and had a three-year stint some time before then, ending in 2002. She works alongside multiple panelists, whose ages range from 25 to 85-year old TV legend Gloria Hunniford. It is thought the numbers will be cut next year, alongside the hours available.

Lorraine Kelly, meanwhile, is also said to be unhappy with the changes. She has had her own, self-titled morning programme on ITV since 2010. But an ITV source told us this week: "She has been an icon of ITV but serious cuts need to be made and her show has been cut to just 30 minutes, which after ad breaks will be a very short chunk of time."