HEARTBREAKING: Loose Women’s Janet Street-Porter Makes Emotional ANNOUNCEMENT About the REASON Behind ITV Show CUTBACKS

Loose Women star Janet Street-Porter admits she can understand ITV bosses making sweeping cuts to the hit daytime show.

The network announced earlier this year that it was axing more than 220 jobs and making cuts to shows including Loose Women and Lorraine. The changes will see Loose Women broadcast for 30 instead of 52 weeks, while there have also been reports the pool of panellists will be reduced.

Janet, who has been on the Loose Women panel since 2011, said that while she is “sad”, she understands why ITV chiefs have made the decision as she has been a TV executive herself.

She told the Daily Mail: “I’m sad the number of episodes will be cut back, but having been a TV executive I understand the need to make economies.”

The TV star, 78, added that she does not worry for her own future because she has “the brain of a freelancer”. Her varied career has includes an appearance on I’m A Celebrity, two stints on Celebrity MasterChef and featuring on panel shows including Question Time and Have I Got News for You.

She said: “I don’t worry about what job I’m going to be doing this time next year, because I’ve got the brain of a freelancer.

“Most of my working life I’ve gone from one job to another. But I’ve lasted this long, nobody is going to shut me up now.”

Janet previously joked that she would “bully” ITV boss Kevin Lyog “into submission” to get him to reverse the Loose Women cuts.

Speaking on the Off Air with Jane and Fi podcast, the panellist shed light on the financial pressures facing ITV, adding that its advertising revenue had been “diminishing hugely”.

Janet revealed that she’d presented her case for the show to Kevin Lygo, the managing director of ITV Studios, whom she knows “very well.”

So, I’ve said to him in no uncertain terms what I feel about it, which is that Loose Women performs a valuable service.

“It talks about things women are interested in, in a pretty straightforward way. It gives people a bit of a laugh in the middle of the day, doesn’t take itself too seriously.”

When asked if the show would “carry on”, she responded: “Yes, course it’s carrying on! Of course it’s carrying on. It’s carrying on for 30 weeks of next year and maybe more if I can bully Kevin Lygo into submission.” She added that the bullying was “metaphorically speaking”.

Fellow Loose Women panellist Nadia Sawalha was critical of the cuts that she said came “out of the blue”.

She said: “What’s been brutal, absolutely brutal, over the last week, honestly I feel tearful about it, is that hundreds of people… are going to be made redundant out of the blue, these are all the people behind the scenes that support us in every way.”