This Morning (TV programme)

This Morning
Also known as	This Morning with Phillip & Holly (2015–) This Morning with Eamonn & Ruth (2017–)
Genre	Entertainment Lifestyle
Created by	Diane Nelmes[1]
Presented by	Phillip Schofield (2002—) Holly Willoughby (2009—) Ruth Langsford (2006—) Eamonn Holmes (2006—) Rylan Clark-Neal (2013–)
Theme music composer	David Pringle
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	29
No. of episodes	6,159 (as of 14 July 2017)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Emma Gormley
Producer(s)	Madeline Chiari Emma Morris Ellie Cole Natalie Kellaher Lucy Johnston Juliet Bacon (Showrunner) Kerry Burch (Showrunner)
Location(s)	Albert Dock (1988–96, 2013) The London Studios (1996–2018) Television Centre (2018–)
Editor(s)	Martin Frizell Vivek Sharma (deputy)
Running time	120 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company(s)	Granada Television (1988–2009) ITV Studios (2009–)
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	576i (SDTV) (1988–2015) 1080i (HDTV) (2015–)
Original release	3 October 1988 (1988-10-03) – present
Chronology
Related shows	This Morning Summer
External links
Website	www.itv.com/thismorning

This Morning is a British daytime television programme that is broadcast on ITV. The show airs live on weekdays from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. featuring news, topical items, showbiz, style and beauty, home and garden, food, health, real life and more similar features.

This Morning is currently presented by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on Monday to Thursday, with Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes on Fridays, and has aired on ITV since 3 October 1988, making it one of the longest running daytime programmes on British television.

Since beginning in 1988, This Morning has been sponsored by four companies; BT Group, Dolmio, Nivea and currently Boots.

History

In 1988, ITV decided to create a live daytime morning programme. Four regional ITV companies made pilot shows to bid for the national contract:

• Television South offered a show called Home Today, hosted by Andy Craig and Fern Britton.^[2]
• Thames Television
• Tyne Tees Television
• Granada Television offered a show called This Morning, and was awarded the national ITV contract.

The first episode of This Morning aired at 10.40 am on 3 October 1988 and finished at 12.10 pm, live from the Granada studio inside the Albert Dock in Liverpool. An industry insider believed the idea would not work and would be pulled by Christmas 1988, but despite This Morning being launched with no publicity its ratings quickly rose to a daily average of two million viewers.

The first few series of experts were: weatherman Fred Talbot, agony aunt Denise Robertson, medic Dr Chris Steele, cook Susan Brookes, hair and make-up artists Andrew and Liz Collinge and wine expert Charles Metcalfe. The theme tune was by David Pringle, who also wrote opening music for Wheel of Fortune, Fun House and The Pyramid Game.

As part of the show, weather presenter Fred Talbot used a floating map of the British Isles to report the forecast.^[3] A clip of a streaker running onto Talbot's weather map in 1995 is regularly shown on clip shows.^[4] In the Summer of 2001, Madeley and Finnigan left This Morning to present their own show on Channel 4.

2009–15

Former This Morning logo (2009–15)

A relaunch of This Morning took place in 2009 and subsequently, the ratings rose by 20%. Part of the relaunch included a new set and Holly Willoughby became a new co-presenter.^[5]

In March 2010, This Morning announced that the show would air seven days a week, with two new one-hour shows broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays. Schofield and Willoughby presented pre-recorded links in between compilations of the past week's programming. The weekend editions were introduced on 20 March 2010, but have since been dropped from the schedule.^[6]

The Hub was the interactive part of the show which heavily featured in This Morning from 2010 until 2014. Presenters included Jeff Brazier (2013–14), Jenni Falconer (2013–14), Stephen Mulhern (2011–14) Rylan Clark (2013–14), Emma Willis (2012–14), Coleen Nolan (2010–12), Samanthi Jayawardena (2010–12) and Matt Johnson (2010–13).^[7][8]

On 1 March 2010, This Morning began an interactive cooking event, named This Morning Cook In!, where each week, five viewers and a celebrity guest cook along, via Skype, with the chefs on the day of the event. Gino D'Acampo and Phil Vickery were the two chefs to present the item.^[9]

The show has proven newsworthy on several occasions. This Morning covered new ground by showing a gay partnership celebration live.^[4] A 2008 interview with Kerry Katona, slurring her words, also attracted coverage.^[10]

On 21 August 2013, Carol Vorderman took her first steps towards a 2014 World Record attempt by doing a solo flight to 1,000 metres high, live on This Morning, reporter Jenni Falconer was there.^[11]

On 3 October 2013, This Morning celebrated its 25th anniversary. The programme was broadcast live from its original home at Albert Dock in Liverpool with presenters Phillip Schofield, Eamonn Holmes, Holly Willoughby and Ruth Langsford being joined by original presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. Numerous historical clips of the show were aired, including Gene Pitney's infamous miming gaffe from 1989. Keith Lemon presented the weather from the show's infamous floating weather map, while Stephen Mulhern presented various items including 'The Hub Sub' (The Interactive 'Hub' on a submarine).^[12] There was much speculation around whether Fern Britton would return for the 25th anniversary, however it was confirmed eight days before that she would not.^[13][14]

2015–present

On 27 August 2015, This Morning broadcast the remaining weeks' shows from the South Bank due to the main studio having a revamp ready for the new series on Tuesday 1 September. The new series had many changes including a brand new set, theme music, titles and the new logo being painted onto the outside of the building.^[15]

In February 2017 it was announced that The London Studios where This Morning is filmed is due to be knocked down and rebuilt in a redevelopment. The studios are planned to close in early 2018, and This Morning will be relocated to Television Centre during construction.^[16][17]

Presenters

This Morning is currently hosted by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby from Monday to Thursday, and Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on Fridays. During school holidays, Langsford and Holmes present between Monday and Friday with occasional stand in presenters on Friday mornings. Regular This Morning stand-in presenters include Amanda Holden, Christine Lampard, Rylan Clark-Neal and Alison Hammond

From October 1988 to July 2001, This Morning was presented by husband and wife Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. However, from 1998 onwards, they hosted only the Monday to Thursday editions, with regular guest presenters hosting on Fridays: during the tenth series Caron Keating and Ross Kelly presided, and from series 11 in 1999 Fern Britton and John Leslie were regular presenters of the Friday show.^[18]

When Madeley and Finnigan departed the show in 2001, they were replaced by Coleen Nolan and Twiggy, with Britton and Leslie remaining on Fridays.^[19][20] However, Nolan and Twiggy proved less popular with viewers,^[21]

John Leslie was replaced by Phillip Schofield in 2002, developing an on-screen relationship with Fern Britton that was characterised by good humour and giggling.^[22]

In March 2009, Fern Britton announced that she was to leave This Morning and was later replaced by Holly Willoughby in September 2009. On 17 July 2009, Britton presented her final show after 10 years of presenting.^[23]

Studio

The new exterior design coinciding with the programme's revamp.

This Morning broadcasts live from Studio 8 at The London Studios on the South Bank which features large picture windows looking out over the River Thames.^[24] Coinciding with the programme's revamp, the outside of the studio was repainted with the new This Morning logo and branding.

Awards

This Morning have won the National Television Award for Best Daytime/Live Magazine Show 7 years running 2011 to 2017^[25]

References

External links

• This Morning on IMDb
• This Morning at ITV.com
• This Morning at stv.tv
• This Morning at u.tv