Desk job for Good Morning Britain

ITV‘s new breakfast show will begin will all four presenters sitting behind a desk.

Former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Susanna Reid, who has switched from BBC Breakfast, will be joined by Ben Shephard, Charlotte Hawkins and Sean Fletcher for Good Morning Britain (GMB).

Reid, who has predicted she will have a sleepless night before her debut, told GMB’s website: “We all start behind the desk, which hasn’t happened for a while. It’s a good place for us all to be sitting.

“Is this a bold move? I think it makes it not a direct comparison to what is on the other side. It marks us out as distinctive. We are more of a team than a pairing.”

Comparisons with Daybreak, one of its ITV breakfast predecessors, may not be welcomed. It was fronted by Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley who also switched from the BBC for the high-profile job. They failed to transfer the magic they had hosting BBC’s The One Show over to the commercial broadcaster, and it told in their disappointing ratings.

GMB’s presenters will sit behind a glass-topped desk with images of the London skyline in the background. There is a cream corner sofa to one side for in-studio interviews and banks of TV screens on the opposite side.

Fletcher told GMB’s website: “The sofa, the on-screen couple is where breakfast TV started and it has gone all the way through. It is great to move away from that and try something different. But it is not just the set. Four presenters rather than a couple is great. Yes you have marriages but you also have groups hanging out. Ours feels more like a family.”

Hawkins, who has moved from Sky News’s Sunrise programme, claimed the set has “a different feel” while Shephard added “we will still have a sofa in the studio to carry out some interviews, there will still be that familiarity”.

For its first show, producers are looking for photos and videos from One Direction fans and case studies to talk to about the new Help to Work Scheme.

Former Daybreak showbiz presenter Richard Arnold is also back on screen.

He jokingly tweeted: “I’m an effectively the embarrassing family member @GMB they can’t shake! #GMB”.

Desk job for Good Morning Britain