BBC Boosts Morning Live with TV Icon Penny Smith

bosses have stepped up their ratings war with by bringing in TV legend Penny Smith to their flagship daytime show, Morning Live.

Penny, 67, spent 17 years on the GMTV sofa before being axed as part of an ITV cost-cutting drive in 2010.

But today she was back on daytime television, presenting a special segment investigating the chaos faced by tourists caught up in the EU's new fingerprint scanner, much to the delight of the show's viewers.

Penny was out on the ground at Manchester chatting to people travelling through the airport while also meeting up with a young woman who missed her flight due to the chaos.

She then tried a number of different substances on her hands, from water to moisturiser and an wipe, to see how it impacted the results on the fingerprint scanner. All produced different results.

A source said: 'Penny is hugely talented, experienced, and was much-loved during her days on ITV, so it was a great move by BBC bosses to bring her into Morning Live. There's certainly scope to have her feature more in the future.'

Penny's return to daytime television was welcomed by viewers who took to social media to express their delight.

One said: 'Can we please see more of Penny Smith on Morning Live?' while another said: 'Great to see Penny Smith back on TV'.

Penny began her career as a reporter and feature writer on the Peterborough Evening Telegraph in 1977.

Penny later helped launch Sky News in February 1989, and four years later she joined GMTV, where she stayed until 4 June 2010.

She has since hosted several radio shows, including the weekday breakfast show on BBC London, Talk Radio, and Magic Classical.

Elsewhere, she has appeared on Have I Got News for You, Just the Two of Us, and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Morning Live consistently beats its ITV rival This Morning, pulling in more than a million viewers every day.

It is hosted by Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones, and airs on weekday mornings between 9:30am and 10:45am.

Meanwhile, This Morning is hosted by Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard, and airs from 10am until 12:30pm. 

The Mail on Sunday first revealed the BBC was launching a rival to This Morning back in 2020, though bosses insisted, perhaps unconvincingly, that the two shows would not be adversaries.

However, they sniffed blood when the ITV show was thrown into chaos following the departure of long-serving hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield in 2023. That same year, the corporation announced that it was extending Morning Live’s slot from 45 minutes to 75, which kicked in just weeks before This Morning’s new hosts Cat and Ben took up their spots on the blue sofa in March 2024.

And it appears to have paid off as today, Morning Live brings in almost double the viewers of This Morning.

Though the BBC show hasn’t quite ‘ seen off’ its rival yet , however tempting that might be for Morning Live’s editor Emma Morris – who previously worked on the ITV show under its long-serving boss Martin Frizell.

She left in 2019 to take charge of the BBC’s One Show – and was later also handed the role of launching Morning Live.