Cat Deeley has apologised to viewers after being slammed by an epilepsy charity over a joke made during Monday’s This Morning.
The presenter faced criticism after quipping that she was ‘having a seizure’ while dancing to Meghan Trainor’s song All About That Bass.
The remark sparked backlash from charity The Epilepsy Society, who noted that seizures are ‘no laughing matter.’
Cat addressed the backlash in the opening moments of Tuesday’s This Morning, and said: ‘I just wanted to apologise to anyone who was offended yesterday when I made a light-hearted comment about my dancing style.
‘It really wasn’t supposed to cause any upset to anybody, but I can see why that might have been the case.’
Cat Deeley has apologised to viewers after being slammed by an epilepsy charity over a joke made during Monday’s This Morning
The presenter faced criticism after quipping that she was ‘having a seizure’ while dancing to Meghan Trainor’s song All About That Bass during Monday’s show (pictured)
In the previous day’s episode, Cat had made the brief remark while introducing an interview with singer Meghan Trainor.
As they played her famous 2014 song, Cat showed off her dance moves before telling co-host Ben Shephard: ‘Nothing to see here. Yeah, I’m fine, just having a seizure.’
The comment then sparked backlash from viewers, who were quick to note that seizures were ‘no laughing matter’ for those who have epilepsy or similar conditions.
The Epilepsy Society also condemned the comments, posting on X: ‘Seizures are no laughing matter for people with #epilepsy @catdeeley.
‘Please do better and educated yourselves about this difficult and poorly understood condition, @thismorning.’
It comes after This Morning was hit by a fresh crisis last month, with ‘viewing figures plummeting by half’, according to new reports.
Since hosts Cat, 47, and Ben, 49, took over Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield’s slot, half a million viewers have stopped tuning into the ITV Daytime show.
With over a million viewers watching Ben and Cat’s first day back in March, two months later figures currently stand at less than 500,000 – a dramatic drop.
Cat addressed the backlash in the opening moments of Tuesday’s This Morning, and said: ‘I just wanted to apologise to anyone who was offended yesterday’
In the previous day’s episode, Cat showed off her dance moves before telling co-host Ben Shephard: ‘Nothing to see here. Yeah, I’m fine, just having a seizure’
The remark had led to criticism from charity The Epilepsy Society
Cat’s comments sparkled backlash from viewers, who noted that seizures were ‘no laughing matter’
The decline in viewers comes after former This Morning presenter Fern Britton, 66, hinted that ‘she’s in talks to return to the ITV show’.
According to The Sun, a source said: ‘Nobody at This Morning thought viewing figures would dip beneath the landmark low of half a million.
‘The arrival of Ben and Cat was supposed to spark a resurgence and hopefully keep the ratings above the million mark. But within a couple of weeks it became apparent they hadn’t done the trick while their nemesis Morning Live stayed strong.
‘Now there is a massive question mark lingering over the future of the show as it’s difficult to justify the huge costs of making a live, daily show, especially at a time when ad revenues for linear TV are so low.’
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This Morning’s rival BBC Morning Live is reportedly raking in between one million to 1.4million views.
Cat and Ben were unveiled as the show’s new host’s in March, with their debut episode drawing an average viewership of 806,000 and a peak of one million – among the show’s highest ratings of 2024 so far.
But the following week saw the figure plunge to as low as 692,500, lower than both Holly and Phillip’s last day, which saw 767,00 people tune in.
A source told The Sun at the time: ‘The hope was that the new duo would bring back an air of stability and familiarity back to This Morning. It’s still relatively early days, but the signs are not good.’
They added: ‘After the initial flurry of interest on their first day in the job, the viewing figures almost immediately dipped back into six figures.
‘ITV bosses will be hoping they can turn things around before the next big milestone date as they’ve so much riding on Ben and Cat being a success.’
A spokesperson told on Sunday: ‘As a broadcaster and streamer, ITV has a range of programming in its Daytime schedules. This Morning reached an average 4.2 million viewers a week in April alone, its highest so far in 2024.’
‘In 2023 This Morning was one of the most streamed shows on ITVX. Like all media, This Morning has expanded into the digital sphere with record breaking results.’
‘This Morning remains Britain’s most talked about and influential daytime TV show and has never had a better connection with its viewer, with just under 160 million video views of This Morning content and reached 63 million unique social media accounts in April.’