ITV thrown into chaos as Good Morning Britain is pulled off air after Susanna Reid and Ed Balls are evacuated
Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard had to start This Morning 20 minutes earlyITV was left in chaos today after a dramatic evacuation at ITN Studios, forcing an unprepared Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on air 20 minutes early.
Susanna Reid and Ed Balls were hosting Good Morning Britain when an alarm in the London building began to sound.
Unsure what to do, Susanna told viewers they would “plough ahead”, before cutting to an advert break.
But when the show returned, fans found Cat and Ben on their screens instead.
The This Morning duo were unaware the cameras had begun rolling, as Cat adjusted her white jumper.
She asked: “They’re not coming back or they are coming back?”
Cat then burst into laughter as Ben unwittingly replied: “What are we doing?”
ITV stars evacuated as shows thrown into chaos
The drama unfolded on the same day that ITV was hit with a schedule switch-up.
Good Morning Britain was due to run for an extra 30 minutes today after Lorraine was removed from the listings.
Host Lorraine Kelly is having a week off from the show, meaning GMB was due to finish at 10am.
At 9.40am, Susanna said: “We are on air until 10 o’clock this morning. And we’re on air for the rest of the week.”
But minutes later, she halted GMB to say: “Just in our ear, we’ve got an alarm sounding. I’m not sure what that is. Director Sam, is there an alarm we should be taking notice of?”
Ed also told viewers: “We’re hearing a fire alarm.”
Susanna continued: “In our ears, but you probably aren’t hearing it on air so we will plough ahead. We were actually about to do an interview with Dave Fishwick about scams.”
The presenters told viewers they would be going to the commercial break first. Ed mused: “While our ears blare, we’ll go to a break.”
But viewers got a surprise when the show returned.
Ben and Cat’s This Morning shock
Good Morning Britain returned after the break to a holding logo for the show.
Then suddenly, Ben and Cat appeared on screen as they sat on the This Morning sofa. But neither were aware the cameras were already rolling, live to the nation.
Ben was heard to say: ‘That’s because you wouldn’t let us,’ before Cat asked someone off camera: ‘They’re not coming back or they are coming back?”
Ben then asked: “What are we doing?”
The This Morning title card then showed, before their credits rolled, 20 minutes early.
As the show started at 9.40am, Cat said: “Hello there and welcome to Monday’s This Morning. Shall we tell them, shall we let them know?”
Ben chipped in: “This is all very exciting, we are 20 minutes early, Cat Deeley.” She added: “We are early, this is because there was an alarm going off in the GMB studio.”
Ben confirmed that the Good Morning Britain studio – including Susanna and Ed – had been evacuated.
“We are hopefully going to find 20 minutes of content,” he nervously mused.
Read more: 22 Kids and Counting: Sue Radford becomes emotional as she shares tragic death of five-year-old
