Copyright manchestereveningnews
Television presenter Ruth Langsford has admitted she has no control over her work schedule following ITV's announcement of significant changes to its daytime programming. Loose Women is amongst the broadcaster's programmes facing alterations, with its run reduced from 52 weeks to just 30, alongside planned redundancies. Lorraine Kelly's eponymous daytime programme will also be trimmed to 30 weeks, with its duration halved from an hour to 30 minutes. Speaking exclusively, Ruth, who presents the ITV panel show whilst also working for television shopping channel QVC, revealed: "I never have a plan, because I don't decide if I work or not. "I think people should know by now what I'm good at, what I do, 30-odd years of doing it, so I'm always open to suggestion." Despite the upheaval, the former This Morning presenter, who celebrated her 65th birthday earlier this year, confirmed she has no intention of stepping away from her career "anytime soon". The broadcaster, who has been with ITV since the 1980s, stated: "I've done all sorts of things, obviously, outside ITV as well. And I love working, I've no plans to retire anytime soon." Discussing her work with QVC, where she has launched her own clothing collection, Ruth explained: "QVC came to me kind of left field. "I didn't see it coming, I've never looked for it, I never saw myself as any kind of fashionista at all. "And then QVC got in touch with my agents and said, 'Oh, you know, we'd love to have a chat with Ruth', and here we are, seven years later. It's an amazing range, and it's just grown." Ruth also praised her colleagues at QVC, describing the company as "one of the nicest places I've worked". Following the announcement of changes at ITV, Kevin Lygo, managing director of ITV's media and entertainment division, told the BBC : "Daytime is a really important part of what we do, and these scheduling and production changes will enable us to continue to deliver a schedule providing viewers with the news, debate and discussion they love from the presenters they know and trust, as well as generating savings which will allow us to reinvest across the programme budget in other genres. "These changes also allow us to consolidate our news operations and expand our national, international and regional news output and to build upon our proud history of trusted journalism at a time when our viewers need accurate, unbiased news coverage more than ever."
