This Morning: A PR disaster for ITV

A special round-up of the week This Morning became the national joke…

Phillip and Holly, the always smiling loveable darlings of ITV Daytime. Only, this past week seems to have shown that while the smiles might be real the ‘loveable darlings’ maybe not so much – as personalities stepped up amid ‘queue gate’ to reveal another side to life at the ITV Studios.

From revelations that The Mirror operate as an alleged mouthpiece for the ITV press office to full-on declarations that Holly and Phil are just not those people seen on screen, the fall-out from Schofield and Willoughby getting a VIP media fast-track inside Westminster Hall where Queen Elizabeth II was lying-in-state has grown and grown.

Anger of ‘queue gate’ turned to anger of what viewers felt was an ‘ITV cover-up’ resulting in a petition that has gained thousands of signatures daily as the week went on. It is currently at over 70,000 – that’s over double what ITV Daytime got for their Loose Woman ambush of Kim Woodburn five years ago. Let’s be sure of one thing, its likely gained more signatures than This Morning gets votes at the National Television Awards, but at the NTA’s it has no real competition anyway.

“We might complain about the BBC at times, but at least when they have issues they take decisive quick action, the editor of This Morning, had it been on the Beeb would have gone by now, and so would the PR people who have allowed this disaster to linger. But they will all survive, because it is ITV – and that isn’t a great image for ITV, no mater what spin they put on it.” – TV Critic Vivian Summers

On GB News former This Morning host Eamonn Holmes, who also worked with the shows boss Martin Frazell at GMTV, spoke about the controversy on the GB News breakfast show, noting the whole of ITV Daytime management needs a ‘clean out’ – something that was first suggested by media outlets when the Loose Women fiasco occurred, but little was done. And again, when The Jeremy Kyle Show was axed following the suicide of a participant, and again little was done behind the scenes within the management. And let’s remember that toxic programme, using the most vulnerable in society as entertainment, would still be on air if the tragedy hadn’t happened.

Discussing the daily newspapers with David Mellor and Clare Muldoon on Wednesday, (Sept 21st) Eamonn was unimpressed with his former colleague’s behaviour.

“Why is Holly fighting to keep her job, and Mr Phillip isn’t?” he asked, later adding, “What you’ve got to understand is The Mirror is literally in bed with ITV so they act as sort of an outlet for the ITV press office of disinformation…”

Eamonn went on:

“They didn’t get a fast-track, they say. Lie. They say they didn’t pay their respects to the body. Lie. What else were they there for? Let’s just tell the truth about the whole thing.  They messed up, and instead of being arrogant and saying, “We were there working as journalists”, why don’t they just say, “Yeah, we thought it would be a good idea”.”

Clare Muldoon who had previously worked on This Morning added:

“‘Who knows? Twitter, last night, was saying she didn’t want to vacate her job at This Morning. …Who would want to give up £600,000 a year and everything else that comes with it? To be honest with you I think the brand is very damaged. I think there has to be a change from the bottom to the top on This Morning. Having worked on the programme fro a number of years, I think they need a complete clear-out. In fact, I think ITV needs a complete clear-out”

GB News continued the debate later on with Dan Wootton as Kim Woodburn, who has had a run-in with ITV Daytime in the past, noted she would have queued if she’d wanted to see The Queen’s coffin, but she didn’t believe Schofield and Willoughby had told the truth. Kim noted:

“Their self-serving publicity stunt came back to bite them on the bum didn’t it? … I am appalled by them really, honestly. …These people that think that because they’re on television that they can flout the rules, its so wrong… you saw in that queue people in wheelchairs, walking sticks, daughter’s helping their mothers. Susannah Reid queued for six or seven hours with her mum. Why are they different, they’re telling lies and they’ve been caught.”

Also speaking to GB News was comedienne Francine Lewis who noted her personal experiences with the pair.

“I think if they’d just came clean in the first place there wouldn’t be so much outrage. To me this is very typical of Holly and Phil to think they have a VIP status. I do think they think they’re TV royalty and a cut above the rest. I have experienced being on their show with them and in all the years of being on TV and being guests on people’s shows, I’ve never been so unwelcome on a sofa… they didn’t greet me, they didn’t say hello and they didn’t say goodbye… that was twice I was with them. When I was with Eamonn and Ruth I had a totally different experience.”

“When I was doing Britain’s Got Talent, Stephen Mullhurn sat next to me and said ‘I think Francine Lewis could win this show’ and do you know what she [Holly] said? ‘Reeeeallllly’ (sarcastically) and it was really rude.”

Twitter users became suspicious of a number of posts trying to end the trending This Morning memes and comments by suggesting it could be harming the mental health of Willoughby and even Schofield. Some suggested it was ITV staff desperately trying to shift the focus or close down the tweets. One tweeter observed:

“Caroline Flack spent more than half her life fighting mental [health issues]. When she killed herself, it was out of terror at the thought of prison. You are using her death as a get out of jail free card for #HollyandPhil for them using the Queen lying in state as a red carpet event.”

They added, “@ITV how can you condemn the public’s reaction to #HollyandPhil when you still produce @GMB, @thismorning  and @loosewomen, all of which have treated both celebrities & public who are trending on social media exactly the same way as they’re now being treated?”

Leon noted: “All these despicable people [using] poor Caroline flack’s picture to defend the indefensible. It’s not about queue jumping it’s about truth and honesty, they sat on their sofa and lied to our faces.”

“It’s not going away for Holly and Phil is it? It’s become about way more than #queuejumping now. People seem fed up with their smug, self-satisfied, entitled attitudes. The wave of disgust is going to be hard to come back from.” said Pamela.

Ash posted, “I think cancel culture is bad in general, but a little accountability goes a long way.” Something ITV Daytime should have learned a long time ago…

Update: ITV continues to support their daytime faces continuing to say they did nothing wrong. The petition now will shortly reach 75,000 signatures.