ITV has confirmed that Susanna Reid is to leave the BBC to join its new breakfast show, Good Morning Britain.
We reported last month that Reid, who has presented BBC Breakfast alongside Bill Turnbull since the show moved to MediaCityUK in April 2012, had been poached by ITV to be the face of its replacement for Daybreak. Reid originally joined BBC Breakfast in 2003.
Susanna Reid
And now ITV has officially confirmed that Reid will be joining the channel as main weekday presenter between 6am and 8.30am.
Joining Reid on the sofa will be Ben Shephard, who spent 10 years with the channel before leaving to join Sky Sports in 2010, Sky News presenter Charlotte Hawkins and Sky Sports News and former BBC presenter Sean Fletcher.
Current Daybreak presenter Aled Jones will present a new weekend morning show, Weekend, between 8.30am and 9.25am, starting later this year. ITV has already announced that Lorraine Kelly will now just host her own show, Lorraine, between 8.30am and 9.25am, five days a week.
ITV Director of Daytime, Helen Warner, said: “I’m delighted to welcome all four presenters to the ITV Breakfast family. ITV has a first class roster of breakfast and daytime talent both on and off screen and I’m thrilled to be expanding this.
“Our overriding aim is to continue to improve our breakfast programming for our viewers and we have been working for some time behind the scenes developing the next chapter of our offering.”
“Engaging, news driven content is our number one priority and will be at the heart of everything we do on Good Morning Britain. I believe we have a top team in place to deliver this and make this a compelling proposition to wake up to in the morning.”
The announcement brings the curtain down on Daybreak, which has been beset by criticism since it replaced GMTV in 2010.
Initially derided for being overly glitzy and out of touch, launch presenters Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley left in December 2011 with Jones and Kelly taking over in May 2012.
Ratings continued to slump however, with the show pulling in just 1m compared to BBC Breakfast’s 1.5m.
Today’s announcement appears to suggest that former North West Tonight presenter Ranvir Singh, who left to join Daybreak in 2012, will not be part of the new line-up.
