This Morning viewers back Cat Deeley after ‘seizure’ joke

By Melody Fletcher For Mailonline

15:52 18 Jun 2024, updated 16:14 18 Jun 2024

This Morning viewers have backed Cat Deeley after she was forced to apologise over a joke made during Monday’s show. 

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.’

However, fans were quick to defend Cat, noting that she ‘didn’t mean any harm’ and the backlash was ‘a bit of an overreaction’.

Tweets included: ‘She was making fun of herself and not people that have seizures. Sometimes we need to be less critical. It was clearly a joke on herself;’

‘I did think it was the wrong thing for her to say. I reckon she didn’t mean any harm, bad mistake;’

‘The British sense of humour is doomed! Get a grip. It was a joke at her expense, not other people.’;

‘I thought the apology from @catdeeley on @thismorning regarding her seizure comment yesterday was truly genuine. I do hope now that it will stop the mob from constantly attacking her character. Jury by social media can go too far and we’ve seen that in the past.’

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.’

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 some 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 educate yourselves about this difficult and poorly understood condition, @thismorning.’

One viewer tweeted: ‘Wow @catdeeley @thismorning choose your words more wisely! You really think seizures are funny? What a stupid thing to say and then snigger at!’

And others said: ‘Living with epilepsy is not funny it can be a life-limiting condition and living with it is no joke, when I see people laughing about it, especially on national TV, it hurts and angers me’; 

‘Please explain why you think this is acceptable @catdeeley one of the worst experiences in my life was watching my 15yo have a seizure. I thought I was going to lose him but as long as you can have a laugh.’

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.

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.’

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 MailOnline 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.’