After almost four decades on our screens and a long stint on Lorraine, Dr Hilary Jones has confirmed he is leaving the daytime show.
The 72-year-old qualified as a medical doctor in 1976 and has been working on television since the late 80s, beginning his broadcasting career on TV-am.
Dr Hilary began featuring regularly on GMTV in 1993 and joined the Lorraine family in 2010, where he has served as the health editor ever since.
Now, however, the beloved TV doctor, who has become a staple of British daytime telly, has announced that he is leaving the programme amid a series of cutbacks at ITV.
Speaking to The Sun at the Best Hero Awards, the star shared: ‘I’m still working there until December 31, and then I’m a free agent.’
Dr Hilary added that ‘it’s liberating from the constraints of a news programme presenter’, predicting that he’ll ‘probably come back as a guest presenter now and then’.
‘People are being very sensitive to the fact that some people are having to move on,’ he added, addressing how, from January, Lorraine will be reduced to 30 minutes and air for only 30 weeks, instead of 52.
‘A lot of people are being redeployed elsewhere or in the same role. ITV, like everyone else, are having to make changes.’
When asked whether bosses would be marking his departure with a leaving party, he quipped: ‘It would be lovely if they did, but we will wait and see on that one because money is tight.
‘Certainly, there are groups of us who feel we’re part of a family, so we will all be going out anyway, whether they pay or not.’
He stated that those being made redundant are ‘quite happy to dip into [their] own pockets.’
Dr Hilary, whose role has involved giving updates on emerging medical news and offering advice, particularly through the pandemic, also confessed that many people at ITV ‘saw changes coming’.
As for what he’ll do now, Dr Hilary didn’t say, but he’s had a regular guest slot on BBC Radio 2 since 2000.
He also frequently contributes his writing to medical blogs and has penned several health-related books.
As for the landscape at ITV, the shake-up at Lorraine was confirmed in May this year, with only This Morning unaffected by the daytime swaps.
From 2026, the show, which currently runs on weekdays from 9am to 10am, will air from 9:30am to 10am.
Higher-ups explained that it will be broadcast on a ‘seasonal basis’, a change that has also hit Loose Women, which has been condensed to a 30-week schedule and will take up the ‘seasonal’ format it previously operated on until 2016.
As for what will fill those missing hours, Good Morning Britain will run from 6am to 9:30am, taking up the half an hour originally held by Lorraine.
When Lorraine is off-air, GMB will run through until 10am.
The additional hours of the early morning show, fronted by the likes of Susanna Reid and Kate Garraway, will cover a wider scope of topics alongside its usual interviews, news updates, and debates.
Kevin Lygo, Managing Director of ITV’s Media and Entertainment Division, previously said: ‘Daytime is a really important part of what we do, and these scheduling and production changes will enable us to continue to deliver a schedule providing viewers with the news, debate and discussion they love from the presenters they know and trust as well generating savings which will allow us to reinvest across the programme budget in other genres.
‘These changes also allow us to consolidate our news operations and expand our national, international, and regional news output and to build upon our proud history of trusted journalism at a time when our viewers need accurate, unbiased news coverage more than ever.’
ITV has been contacted for comment.
Lorraine currently airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 9am on weekdays.
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