GB News star Ellie Costello pulls out last minute in major shake-up

Ellie Costello was absent from her usual breakfast slot on GB News today in a last-minute shake-up. The English news presenter explained to her fans that she is away for her friend’s birthday on the weekend.

The schedule initially said Ellie would be on air at 6am alongside Stephen Dixon. However, Dawn Neesom stepped in to replace her.

Taking to , Ellie said: “No brekkie show for me this morning! I’m away for the weekend for my friend’s birthday. To prep for the trip I’ve applied two layers of this @lucybeecoconut fake tan and it’s the most gorgeous natural glow.

“Looking forward to seeing how long it lasts over the weekend x.”

Yesterday, Ellie was on her breakfast show alongside Ben Leo and interviewed a number of guests, including a former star about the latest ITV schedule changes.

Charlie Lawson, who played Jim McDonald on the long-running ITV soap, appeared on GB News to discuss the latest soap scheduling, which will be implemented in January 2026.

The broadcaster recently confirmed that ” and ” will move to a new scheduling pattern on ITV1, which includes a “soaps power hour” from Monday to Friday.

As part of the new schedule, ” will air 30-minute episodes at 8 p.m., and ” will air half-hour episodes at 8.30 p.m. Both soaps will lose an episode a week under the new schedule.

When asked about his thoughts, Charlie said: “It’s the fact that we all watch TV in totally different ways – I pick and choose. When I was doing we would be getting between 12 and 22 million people in viewers.”

He added: “I’m not surprised they’ve cut it down. […] I think , ITV and survive on income. It’s nothing to do with the quality of the soaps.”

“It’ll be a sadder place – there are people from my generation who grew up with these things, and you become totally involved in the storylines. It would be a great loss to Britain.”