[Keith]

It honestly baffles me that three years after Piers left they don’t have any guest presenters who would want to take on the job permanently.

Given Piers leaving/getting the boot from TalkTV, I wonder if ITV would consider having him back…

Maybe GMB / ITV are happy with only having one permanent host, who is accompanied by a series of regular guest/co-presenters.

I'd consider it unlikely that Piers would return to GMB, given his departure and more recent events. It's easy to imagine him trying to give a politician a grilling and them just retorting...
"You can talk, according to a judge you were aware of the phone hacking that was going on at the Mirror."
This would rather undermine what might otherwise be a good interview up to that point.

[AaronTV]

Maybe GMB / ITV are happy with only having one permanent host, who is accompanied by a series of regular guest/co-presenters.

That may well be the case, but I’m not personally convinced it’s necessarily the best thing for the program or its popularity. There’s very little consistency between Richard, Ed, Ben, Adil, Rob or whoever else turns up to present from what I can see, so it’s difficult to understand what they are trying to achieve.

We hardly ever get ratings anymore but we did last Friday — 620k, with Breakfast on 1.3m. That’s quite a substantial gap between Breakfast, IIRC GMB used to be in the 700-900k range whereas Breakfast has remained solid.

It may be the case that ITV are perfectly happy with the program at that level and are content with leaving it alone, but I do think a permanent team of presenters and a clearer direction wouldn’t go amiss.

[JMT1985]

I am still surprised that BBC Breakfast still gets over 1 million viewers each day - I watch it now and again, and it is very dull, but it seems dull and boring is what some viewers want at breakfast time, and not constant debates as GMB seems to do.

[chris]

I am still surprised that BBC Breakfast still gets over 1 million viewers each day - I watch it now and again, and it is very dull, but it seems dull and boring is what some viewers want at breakfast time, and not constant debates as GMB seems to do.

Yes sadly the choice is pretty poor. I stick to radio.

[AaronTV]

Ben has confirmed on Instagram he will be leaving GMB.

[EJnutz]

Ben and Cat confirmed by ITV as new hosts of This Morning from March.

This news might be the time now to confirm permanent male hosts on GMB

[RDJ]

It’s interesting that they’ve gone for the pairing that they haven’t actually tried out on air together.

Both of them did well with Holly and Rylan respectively, but I presume any screen test together has been done off air.

I like the both of them, but can’t comment on how they will be like as a duo given we’ve not seen any evidence of it.

It does appear from Ben’s Instagram post that he has already hosted his last edition of GMB.

[RhysJR]

Ben Shephard's last GMB is today

twitter.com 

twitter.com 

[what]

Yes sadly the choice is pretty poor. I stick to radio.

It is a terrible choice. For me at least, apart from hitting mute on the TV when the debates come on, GMB is the best of a bad bunch for me, especially up to now on Thursdays and Fridays.

Can't stand Kay Burley and Charlie and Naga always look like they're 5 seconds away from a full blown argument.

[interestednovice]

I tend to agree with you there.

Kay is not really the sort of person I want to watch in the morning, and Charlie & Naga (despite working together for over a decade) don’t really seem to match well which makes Breakfast uncomfortable. Sally & John work better as a pairing.

Naga is very good on 5 Live, so would probably be better on Breakfast with a different co-host. Charlie just seems bored of the programme to me.

GMB is, when it wants to be, better at serious news with the desk format and a good team. It still has too much “fluff” for my liking but it’s generally an easier watch than Breakfast. Although Sally & Jon plus the new set have made a difference there.

GMB now needs a new permanent male host for the majority of the week, plus an official partner to Kate.