This Morning 'pretended to be live' as sign of pre-recorded show is exposed

ITV's This Morning has come under fire previously for seemingly presenting a pre-recorded episode as live.

Speaking on The Rest is Entertainment podcast, journalist Marina Hyde recalled an incident where This Morning hosts Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield led viewers to believe they were watching a live Christmas special.

Despite the show's efforts, sharp viewers noticed several clues indicating that the episode had been taped in advance of its airing, reports the Express.

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Marina highlighted that the episode in question was broadcast in 2020, during a period when London was under "Tier Three" coronavirus restrictions, advising people to work from home. Yet, during the show, passers-by were seen walking behind the studio windows on their way to work.

She said: "I remember in Covid actually, This Morning, and I don't know why they did this, just say it was a pre-record.

"They had a Christmas Day episode, it was Phil and Holly at the time and they were all dressed up, and they could just say it was pre-recorded because no one thinks you've come in on Christmas Day.

"But then there were people walking past all the windows on the way to work and also by that time, we were in something called the tier system, and London was moved into tier one, which meant you could not go to work, and there were all these tells. But the main tell is that, of course they haven't."

This Morning has often been criticised for its practice of broadcasting a pre-recorded Christmas Day episode. At the time of the 2020 broadcast, a viewer took to Twitter saying: "Why are #ThisMorning pretending that the show is live."

Another viewer noted: "Not live. You can tell by subtitles."

Marina's podcast co-star Richard Osman explained "almost all TV shows are done in advance," adding his own programme, House of Games, had wrapped up filming for all of its 2024 episodes already.

He said: "Almost all shows are done in advance. I've been in TV long enough we were always told don't have questions about the Queen Mother, that's how long I've been around.

"If you're involved in something like Countdown or Pointless, where it's returning contestants and there's a storyline, everything must be in the sequence that you're doing it."

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