Gary Lineker has waded in on the on-going ratings war between ‘Good Morning Britain’ and ‘BBC Breakfast’, placing money on long-standing rival Piers Morgan being the loser.
The football pundit spoke out after Piers posted an update on the ITV breakfast show’s viewing figures, which revealed they are up nearly 200,000 compared to the same day last year.
However, when he pointed out BBC Breakfast’s figures were down on the equivalent day, Gary couldn’t help but interject.
He said he would give £5,000 to Great Ormond Street if ‘Good Morning Britain’ manages to beat ‘BBC Breakfast’ on the same day in 2018.
Piers was more than confident in the show’s ability, tweeting: “We’ll overtake them by Christmas.”
After he pointed out ‘BBC Breakfast’ host Dan Walker may need the money, Gary replied: “That’s a no then? Relax, Tubs, being permanently 2nd is nothing like as bad as you keep telling us it is.”
Dan then waded into the row, pointing out that while GMB’s figures have risen, they are still less than half of the average audience ‘BBC Breakfast’ achieves.
Gary concluded the row by joking that Piers has “got more chins than viewers”.
Piers recently spoke out against his rivals, branding ‘BBC Breakfast’ “predictable”, compared to his and Susanna Reid’s “more entertaining and provocative” efforts.
A BBC spokesperson later insisted to HuffPost UK that ‘BBC Breakfast’ remains “by far the UK’s most watched morning news programme, with more than double the average audience of its closest competitor” with an average daily audience of 1.5m and a peak of nearly 3m.
‘Good Morning Britain’ airs from 6am on ITV, while ‘BBC Breakfast’ airs from 6am on BBC One.
