ITV This Morning's Cat Deeley makes shocking confession as viewing figures plummet

This Morning's Cat Deeley dropped a bombshell on-air about her hosting tactics during ITV chat.

In a candid on-screen moment, Cat, alongside her co-presenter Ben Shephard, was chatting with comedian Chris McCausland about being roped in to helm a new weekend morning show, and Ben was curious about how Chris was coping with the transition from stand-up comedy and sitcoms to the nitty-gritty of live presenting.

Ben probed: "From your perspective, Chris, the presenting stuff is what you don't do. You do stand-up, you do scripted stuff, but actually there's in and outs of breaks, there's the starts of [segments], there's the end... how did you get Austin that part?"

Chris revealed with a chuckle: "I just made it up," prompting Cat to confess with a touch of humour: "That's kind of what we do, in all honesty!"

This honest exchange tickled fans on social media, with one fan teasing on X: "Did Cat say she doesn't know what she's doing presenting the show lol? Yeah we know!"

Meanwhile, others questioned if Chris' new gig would manage to liven up Saturday morning telly, with a fan commenting: "The hour before James Martin on a Saturday morning is TV's barren wasteland... good luck Chris," reports the Mirror.

Another viewer added their two cents, remarking: "So yet another person they've chosen to try and crack the weekend morning show. 3rd time lucky and all that I guess."

Chris elaborated on his preparation technique for his new role, advising: "I think, don't have sentences in your head, just have the essence of what you're going to say. The lovely thing is it's pre-recorded so if you say something you don't like, they'll just get you to say it again."

Some viewers remain loyal to Cat as she takes over This Morning, despite a notable drop in viewing figures since Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield departed.

One enthusiast tweeted: "Cat Deeley on This Morning is way more authentic and genuine than what we had with Holly and Phil. Ben could do with relaxing a bit more and being a bit less newsreader formal after years on GMB though."

The audience numbers for the beloved morning programme are causing alarm, with around 486,000 viewers tuning in daily in 2024. Rewind to October 2018 when the show boasted a staggering 2.7 million viewers.

Just last year in 2023, numbers consistently topped 1 million per episode, yet following Cat and Ben's entrance, figures slumped to approximately 635,000 and have since declined even further.

ITV has countered concerns about This Morning's performance, pointing out that the show averaged 840,000 views daily in April 2024 when factoring in ITVX and ITV+1 viewership. The broadcaster remains firm, stating: "This Morning has never had a better connection with its viewers."