Sherrie Hewson has taken a savage swipe at the new Loose Women format and criticised the show for becoming ‘woke’ and ‘subdued’.
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Former Loose Women panellist Sherrie Hewson has criticised the show’s revamped format.
The 75-year-old Benidorm star, who appeared on the ITV programme from 2003 to 2016, described the recent changes as “woke” and “subdued”. The show was overhauled at the start of 2026, introducing a 30-week seasonal run and scrapping its live studio audience.
Reflecting on her time on the programme with Zingo Bingo, Sherrie revealed that the ITV show has now lost its spark, which once attracted viewers. When asked if she regrets leaving the show, she said: “I went back a few times, but when we started Loose Women, we were very free because we didn’t think anybody was watching.
“It wasn’t ‘woke’ times, so we could say anything. I mean, Carol McGiffin and I were unbelievable. It was Carol, me, Kay Adams, Nadia, and then as it progressed. I think Coleen [Nolan] came back, and then Janet Street Porter joined us.
“Janet and I always had a right barney and had proper rows. I always used to tell her to shut up and she used to have a go at me, but you couldn’t do that now. Times have changed, but we were very free and we could talk about anything. We could say anything.”
Sherrie also weighed in on the lack of guests on Loose Women, which previously featured as many as two guests per episode. She said: “We had a lot of wonderful guests, like the cast of Friends, Bette Midler, and Robbie Williams was always on.
“That’s sad because that’s all gone now, because they don’t have guests now and they don’t have a studio audience because they’ve moved studios.
“We had such an amazing time and such freedom to be just us as girls. I’d say, ‘What do you mean, Carol? You’re talking crap. What are you talking about?’ She would go, ‘Don’t you talk to me like that’ and I’d say, ‘I’ll talk to you how I want!’ They were real rows.”
She added: Sadly, that went with the structure as it changed, and became very formulaic. It’s completely changed again and it’s now very structured – very what I would call, subdued.”
She added: “Everything changes. With woke’ now, it’s very hard for them to be that free like we were. There’s people in there like lawyers saying, you can’t say that and can’t do that.”
After a short break, Loose Women returned to screens on Monday (April 27), but viewers were quick to react to the show’s noticeably different feel following the recent changes.
One viewer said: “I miss the audience. This gives a clinical feel.” While another said: “The loose women are back after many weeks and it has become very clear that they shouldn’t have bothered.”
