Lorraine Kelly dealt huge blow as senior staffer quits amid ITV budget cuts

Lorraine's long-serving editor, Victoria Kennedy, has revealed she will be stepping down from her role at ITV amidst significant budget cuts within the network. After steering the ship for eight years, Victoria will depart following the upcoming season. She broke the news on LinkedIn this Friday (19 September), informing her followers that her tenure with Lorraine is drawing to a close. This announcement follows the unveiling of plans for substantial budget reductions affecting ITV's daytime programming.

The financial constraints mean that both Loose Women and Lorraine will now only broadcast for 30 weeks annually, as opposed to their previous year-round schedule. Furthermore, Lorraine's airtime has been halved, dropping from an hour-long slot to just 30 minutes per episode. Victoria disclosed that she would be vacating her editorial role on the show at the end of September, whilst also reflecting on Lorraine's viewership figures. She penned: "September is always an important month for us on Lorraine - the launch of a new season as we go into my favourite time of the year to make this show.

"This year is bittersweet as it will be my last one as Editor. So I'm delighted to see that our September new season BARB ratings are the highest they've been in three years - and with 37 million video views across social last month, we're starting the season on a high."

She went on to express her "gratitude" towards the team she's collaborated with for nearly 10 years.

"This is a little gratitude post to my incredible team who get up at 3am each morning and pretend they are never tired, who greet every guest with a smile, change running orders at a moment's notice as news breaks, send me ideas at the weekends and, most importantly, care deeply about what our audience want to see at 9am live every single weekday.

"Making live daytime telly is relentless and exhausting, but it is also a magical privilege to be in people's living rooms as they start their day," she continued.

Earlier this month, it emerged that ITV's daytime programmes would be relocating to a new shared studio.

Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women are all scheduled to move to The H Club studio in Covent Garden in January 2026.

Managing Director at ITV Studios Daytime Emma Gormley said: "As we work towards more cutting edge and efficient ways to produce Daytime shows in 2026. This move to The H Club studio offers state of the art technology that we can use across our programmes to create shows that are distinctive - with a look and feel that are familiar to and loved by our viewers.

"In a time of transformation for the entire industry, I want to thank all our Daytime teams for their dedication and skill in producing high-quality, compelling live shows every day throughout this period."

In addition to this, ITV has revealed that Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women will now be produced by a single team instead of separate groups for each programme. As part of their extensive restructuring, ITV is planning to cut over 220 jobs.