This Morning viewers flocked to complain about the festive episode.

This Morning sparked complaints from viewers (Image: ITV)

ITV viewers flocked to complain as they tuned into This Morning on Christmas Day. The special episode featured presenters Ben Shephard, Cat Deeley, Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary enjoying some festive-themed fun with a range of guests. The episode opened with the presenters wishing each other a merry Christmas, before teasing what fans could expect from the upcoming show. However, it didn’t take long for complaints to flood in, with some questioning why the show was being presented as if it were live when it had been pre-recorded.

Others were so frustrated they announced they would be switching the channel altogether. Writing on X, one said: “@ITV how thick do you think your audience is? #lorraine #ThisMorning #loosewomen making out they are all live in the studio on Christmas morning. Pathetic as usual.” A second agreed: “#thismorning #lorraine A whole morning of pre recorded self indulgent shite from this unimaginative TV station. Perhaps the advertisers should ask for a rebate.”

Another shared: “To all of you watching ITV, starting with #ThisMorning followed by Loose Women. Save yourselves! Switch over to “That’s TV” for back to back jolly Christmas tunes.”

A fourth commented: “What a F*****G Row!! Turned OFF.. FFS #thismorning.”

An additional viewer remarked: ” When it’s not quite time to go out for Christmas dinner and you end up watching pre recorded #thismorning What a lot of pish! @ITV please don’t do this again next year.”

“Are they pretending this is live?” asked someone else.

It comes just one day after the show sparked backlash just minutes into its Christmas Eve episode as many claimed it had been pre-recorded. While it is known the Christmas Day episode is filmed in advance, fans believed that up until then, all the shows were still going ahead live.

The Christmas episode featured Ben Shephard, Cat Deeley, Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary (Image: ITV)

However, they were surprised to see Ben and Cat on their screens as they typically would have started their holiday break by that point.

Siân Welby appeared in the episode, but posted a video of the studio being packed away for Christmas, only sparking further suspicion that it had been pre-recorded.

Sharing their frustrations on X, one fan complained: “Festive View. Yep. A pre-recorded episode before another pre-recorded episode. Lazy.”

A second fumed: “Ready for another pre-recorded show with people who don’t work holidays, and haven’t worked all week but suddenly appearing today. We weren’t born yesterday.”