Good Morning Britain

GMB is back in ‘lockdown mode’ this morning, down to two presenters again during the main show, with the newsreader on for the first half an hour (for now at least).

They’ve also dropped the blurred effect in favour of a simple split screen, looks a lot better IMO. The ‘magic’ split screen felt a bit unnecessary, and can’t have been very comfortable for whoever was sitting camera right.

'If we get on top of this by December 2 and people do the right thing and we come together, come the second week of December we might be out of this...If we ignore it, we will be in it for months' - @piersmorgan @susannareid100 | #GMB

Watch GMB now 👉 https://t.co/yyUUJmzswF pic.twitter.com/hB0B8bVMEE

— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 5, 2020

Were political heavyweights John Barrowman and Johnny Rotten on again with ''expert analysis''? (!)

See this tweet for more on the different manner of displaying Piers and Susanna used on today's show:

Finding some new (socially distanced) angles this morning. Lots of space with reduced crew numbers means lots more room to swing! 🥰😍🇺🇸 #TeamJib #Jibster #GMB pic.twitter.com/90O28xKb32

— Kathryn Webster (@KathrynWebs) November 5, 2020

Seems a bit of a strange choice to me that they've positioned things in such a way as to miss the huge London background completely in lieu of the mosaic of small screens behind both presenters.

I don't understand what's changed overnight that required tighter measures within the studio from today, that weren't required before Lockdown V2 kicked in ?

May be more about reducing crew rather than presenters and only having the people who really need to be in the studio.

If the presenters are tested or temperature checked before they enter the studio, and if all the crew are masked and socially distanced, I do not see the point of these changes. It makes no difference, only used to show "we are all in this together" approach for the viewer stuck at home.

Yes. It must be cosmetic 'just for show'. As far as I'm aware, nothing has changed today regarding social distancing within the workplace ?

Well it’s not as if the newsreader gets much air time usually, but surprised they didn’t have Charlotte on the cat walk area to come in and introduce the headlines or at the desk Ranvir was at yesterday. Maybe it’s a case of they’re not classing the newsreader as ‘essential’ work; but they’re essential until 6:30!

Social distancing measures haven’t changed. 2 meters distance or 1 meter plus has been a guideline since March and hasn’t changed. So after weeks of trying to ‘blur the gap’ between the presenters and therefore make the social distancing less obvious; they’re now separating the presenters more because of ‘lockdown’. So is the theory here to make the tv shows look very social distanced so people follow the rules? Maybe if they had kept up a bit of social distancing on screen rather than try and deceive us, people might have followed the rules in any case!

Considering Chatlotte did 6 until 6.30 it does seem to be more viewer perception rather than necessary.

I saw this Tweet, thought it was funny

I think many shows are reducing staffing back to the absolute bare minimum. Whilst crew on most of these shows are deemed 'key workers' and thus able to still travel to and from work, there are likely to be far fewer studio guests (possibly none) and other non-core presenters may return to presenting from home. As a result you may need fewer cameras to cover the studio element, and that will reduce the minimum number of crew needed to make the show - and if you follow the sentiment of the law, you should reduce your crewing to reflect that.

Similarly, the fewer people you have on-site, the lower your risk of spreading infection amongst your crew. Social distancing and mask wearing reduce your risk, but they don't remove it. Reducing the number of people present will reduce your risk. With crew potentially still having to use public transport to and from work, that is still a risk that you are exposing people to infection. The fewer people who take that risk, the better.

Should probably mention that even if you're not a "key worker", you can still go to work if you cannot work from home.