Dr. Hilary Jones Exits Lorraine Amid ITV Cuts

Dr Hilary Jones has revealed he is leaving Lorraine after 36 years amid the brutal ITV cuts. 

The GP, 72, has been a regular feature on the morning show – which is facing the brunt of the broadcaster’s cuts announced in May – since its inception in 2010.

Dr Hilary kick started his television career in 1989 as the TV-am doctor before featuring as the health and medical advisor on GMTV from 1993. GMTV was later replaced by Daybreak and Lorraine where he remained as health editor. 

But now, after it was revealed Lorraine will air for just 30 minutes a day, 30 weeks of the year, Dr Hilary has revealed he is stepping away. 

The TV doctor said his final appearance as a regular will be New Year’s Eve, when he will become a ‘free agent’ – but assured fans he might return for guest appearances. 

Speaking to The Sun, Dr Hilary said: ‘People are being very sensitive to the fact that some people are having to move on. 

‘A lot of people are being redeployed elsewhere or in the same role. 

‘ITV, like everyone else, are having to make changes.’

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Dr Hilary and ITV for comment. 

It comes just days after Lorraine Kelly broke her silence on ITV’s decision to brutally slash her daytime show, insisting that despite the ‘heartbreaking’ cuts, she won’t be quitting her programme anytime soon.

Good Morning Britain will now take her titular show’s 9-10am slot for 22 weeks of the year.

For the remaining 30 weeks of the year, will present five days a week, meaning her Friday stand-in presenters Ranvir Singh and Christine Lampard are no longer needed for the show.

While the show’s running time has also been slashed in half, now airing for just 30 minutes from 9:30am to 10am.

In the months since ITV’s announcement was made, speculation has run rife that Lorraine will walk away from the show.

However, speaking out on the cuts for the first time in five months, the Scottish star vowed to remain on the show for as long as possible, ‘until people get fed up’.

She told The Mirror she’d had an ‘inkling’ that there would be changes coming, but that the show had been ‘trying really hard’ to make up for the lack of budget by ‘punching way above our weight for the quality of guests that we get on’.

Admitting she had been ‘angry’ over the decision, Lorraine insisted that her ire was on behalf of her team, who saw their jobs also slashed.

Reports previously suggested that out of ITV’s daytime staff of around 450 employees, up to 220 jobs are at risk.

She claimed she had been ‘fine’ with the news that her shows would be shorter and on less frequently, as her main priority had been to ‘save as many jobs as possible’.

While she said many of those who lost their jobs have since been assigned to other programmes, Lorraine confessed it had been ‘heartbreaking’ to lose team members that she’d ‘grown up with’ and worked alongside for more than 20 years.

She said: ‘It’s been difficult with the cuts, it’s been hard. I’m a lot happier about it now but it was honestly and genuinely all about the team. 

‘I wasn’t annoyed or angry about this for me… it was about the team.’ 

But despite her heartbreak over the changes – and a number of predictions that she is set to quit for good next year – she insisted that the cuts have not convinced her to retire.

Citing the likes of Loose Women panellists Janet Street Porter and Gloria Hunniford as ‘astonishing women who are just getting into their stride in their 70s and 80s’, Lorraine insisted that she would be following in their stead.

In answer to the reports that she will be making her exit when her year-long contract comes to an end, she denied: ‘Absolutely not. I am going to be toddling off that show in my Zimmer frame and even then, I’ll be coming in.

‘I don’t see me going anywhere until people get fed up, you know? Until people say, I’ve had enough of that one.’