This Morning suffers fresh blow after ratings drop as viewers slam Cat Deeley for ‘cracking jokes at the disabled’
THIS Morning today suffered a fresh blow after viewers slammed host Cat Deeley for ‘cracking jokes at the disabled’.
It comes after it was recently revealed that ITV’s mid-morning show’s viewing figures had almost halved in two months.
But Cat come under fire from fans after they accused her of making light about seizures on today’s This morning.
It happened after Cat and co-host Ben welcomed viewers back to the show after the break.
At the time, she’d was seen shimming her shoulders to Meghan Trainor’, as’s hit song All About That Base.
As Ben looked over at her, she said: “Nothing to see here.”
To which he replied: “You alright?”
Cat then said: “Yes, I’m fine, just having a seizure.”
She then moved straight on to saying, “Welcome back’ and introduced singer Meghan onto the show.
“See, she’s doing it too,” Cat added as singer was filmed dancing along in her seat.
However, Cat’s comment about a “seizure” was slammed by fans as being insensitive towards people with epilepsy or a disability.
Taking to X, one wrote: “Seizures are no laughing matter for people with #epilepsy @catdeeley.
“Please do better and educated yourselves about this difficult and poorly understood condition, @thismorning.”
Another viewer tweeted: “This is heartbreaking to see do know there are many types of seizures and to see you mocking people who have them is very upsetting.
“I have nearly lost my child a few times to seizures and is extremely poorly.
“Maybe you should do a story on epilepsy to see what goes on.”
This fan fumed: “Absolute shame on you @catdeeley and @thismorning totally appalling in 2024 to be cracking jokes at the disabled. @Ofcom @ITV.”
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects the brain and causes seizures.
Meanwhile, just last month The Sun exclusively revealed how This Morning had suffered a huge ratings blow.
Just over a million saw new hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard’s first day in mid-March.
But by the same point in May the peak fell to 589,000 – with an average of 486,000 tuning in to the ITV show.
Meanwhile, BBC1 rival Morning Live had solid figures between one million to 1.4million.
It is the latest blow to This Morning after the loss of hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.
A TV insider said: “Nobody at This Morning thought viewing figures would dip beneath the landmark low of half a million.
“The arrival of Ben and Cat was supposed to spark a resurgence and hopefully keep the ratings above the million mark.
“But within a couple of weeks it became apparent they hadn’t done the trick while their nemesis Morning Live stayed strong.
“Now there is a massive question mark lingering over the future of the show as it’s difficult to justify the huge costs of making a live, daily show, especially at a time when ad revenues for linear TV are so low.”
Last year This Morning faced chaos after it emerged Phillip had an affair with a young runner on the show.
However peak viewing figures were still between 682,000 and 996,000.
He then quit and Holly later followed, after an alleged plot to kidnap and murder her.
An ITV spokeswoman said: “This Morning continues to reach over four million viewers a week and remains one of the most streamed programmes on ITVX in 2024.
“The award-winning show has never had a better connection with viewers; with 11 million followers across This Morning social media platforms and almost 130 million video views of This Morning content each month, reaching an average of 62million unique social media accounts every month.”