Piers Morgan made a cheeky dig about ITV’s recent cuts during his appearance on the hit chat show on Thursday

Lorraine Kelly delivered a one-word reply after Piers Morgan couldn’t resist taking a cheeky swipe at ITV’s recent cutbacks.

Earlier this year, the broadcaster announced shake-ups to its daytime schedule, with Lorraine’s show set to be reduced to 30 weeks annually and slashed from an hour to just 30 minutes.

During Thursday’s (November 20) instalment of the popular chat show, former GMB host Piers made a surprise return to ITV for a brief segment.

Yet moments before the programme kicked off, the television personality wasted no time addressing the broadcaster’s recent cuts as he highlighted a format change, reports Daily Record.

Piers started mimicking Lorraine’s Scottish accent, saying: “Hello, Hello!” Lorraine quipped: “If I ever fall over, you can just do it if you want to. Let’s swap.”

Lorraine Kelly welcomed Piers Morgan to her show on Thursday (Image: ITV)

Meanwhile, Piers assumed that GMB presenters Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley were tuning in following the end of their show.

Piers glanced at the camera and remarked: “Hi Kate, hi Richard. Do you miss me?”. Lorraine responded: “They’re away, they’re gone.” Piers appeared surprised as he asked: “Oh they’re gone? .”

Lorraine confirmed: “Aye, they’re off having a cup of tea.” Piers commented: “There used to be a little two way, that’s gone as well. The cut backs are savage aren’t they?” In a single-word response, Lorraine said: “Totally.”

This follows ITV’s announcement that it would be implementing major changes to its daytime programming from next week. Lorraine’s airtime is being reduced to just 30 minutes and will broadcast for only 30 weeks annually as part of fresh changes, whilst GMB will gain an additional 30 minutes.

Piers mentioned the ITV cuts live on Lorraine (Image: ITV)

Loose Women has similarly been impacted, with the programme moving to a seasonal format of 30 weeks per year.

The restructuring led to more than 220 job losses, with GMB now being produced by ITV’s news provider ITN, retaining just 38 of the original 113 staff members.

Kevin Lygo, Managing Director of ITV’s Media and Entertainment Division, said at the time: “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. I recognise that our plans will have an impact on staff off screen in our Daytime production teams.”

Lorraine airs weekdays from 9am on ITV1 and ITVX