Why are Good Morning Britain viewers calling for Richard Madeley’s exit after Gary Lineker interview?

While Richard Madeley has been saying ‘Good Morning Britain’ every day this week alongside co-presenter Susanna Reid, his role on the show is still being hotly contested by ITV viewers.

It seems that hosting duties on GMB may be cursed after Piers Morgan walked away from the programme due to falling out of favour with audiences (after some 50,000 Ofcom complaints were sent in) following his comments about Meghan Markle; and now Madeley is being called to exit the show ‘again’ after his interview with Gary Lineker.

Viewers first declared they were ‘finished’ with the morning news show and Madeley, in October last year when the 67-year-old returned to his presenting role after a ‘lengthy’ break. 

Like Piers Morgan, Madeley has been at the receiving end of numerous Ofcom complaints during his six years behind the desk, therefore some viewers tweeted: “Oh no Richard Madeley is back @GMB... That's me finished with #GMB... bring back either Ed Balls/Martin Lewis permanently..." and “Madeley's back! Bye bye #GMB, off to #skynews,” in October 2022.

Richard’s break came after he not only became a grandfather, but also as audiences continued to complain about his previous comments in May 2022 surrounding 'Partygate'.

The comments in question were made when Richard and Susannah were interviewing Mr Shapps about Boris Johnson’s involvement in the scandal - as Richard stated that he had messages from viewers saying ‘they didn’t care’, Susannah interjected suggesting that those were not the messages she was seeing.

Flash forward a year, and viewers have not given up the fight to see Richard Madeley exit GMB, using a recent interview with Gary Lineker as their latest ammunition.

Gary appeared on the show on 23 May 2023 to talk about his return to the game show ‘Sitting on a Fortune’ when Madeley turned the conversation to grill Lineker about the impartiality row the football presenter was involved in with the BBC. 

Madeley posed questions to Lineker surrounding his comments about the government’s migrant policy and the language used, comparing it to that used in ‘1930s Germany’.

As the heated exchange unfolded, GMB viewers were quick to defend Gary on Twitter and ridicule Madeley who was accused of ‘misrepresenting’ the Match of the Day host.

One viewer tweeted: “Why is [Richard] still trying to be clever and controversial - get rid of him!”  while another agreed: “Wtf is wrong with Richard Madeley! His interview with Gary Lineker was repugnant!”

Some were quick to compare Richard’s interviewing style to that of Alan Partridge, which became a running theme throughout the social media platform.

In light of GMB viewers blasting Richard’s role as host, we asked PeopleWorld readers whether they agreed with them.

At time of writing, 90.9% of people suggested that it is time for Richard to be sent packing, while only 9.1% disagreed. What do you think?