This Morning viewers slammed a ‘painful to watch’ segment as Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary took over hosting duties from Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on Monday. 

Alison, 49, and Dermot, 51, welcomed two experts who claimed that faking your own laugh can ‘cheer you up’ and help people become happier over time – with a technique called laughter yoga.

As the pair – who have taken over from the main hosts of the ITV1 daytime show during their seven-week summer break – discussed the odd technique, they proceeded to demonstrate a forced laugh on air.

The duo joined them in trying the ‘fake laughter’ method – but ended up cackling in hysterics, leaving viewers of the daytime show bewildered.

Viewers took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their disappointment with the ‘lack of content’. 

‘What is this hell? @thismorning is scraping the barrel for ‘content’ #thismorning’;

‘The show is f******* painful today #thismorning’;

‘You do realise there are millions of us who don’t need cheering up and woke up in a great mood right? Some of us haven’t stopped laughing since the final whistle #thismorning’;

‘What the hell is he waffling on about, I don’t know about cheering me up, im not the verge of sticking my head in the oven. #ThisMorning’;

‘Cackling and wheezing, shut up, just f***** shut up #thismorning’;

‘Cheer yourselves up by superglueing a pound coin to the pavement outside Aldi…#thismorning’;

‘Me watching this segment like… #ThisMorning,’ one added with a funny gif of a baffled Ricky Gervais in The Office.

‘It doesn’t need to take much to make Alison laugh #ThisMorning.’

Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley are currently enjoying seven-week break from This Morning just four months after landing the job. 

The new hosts joined the ITV daytime show on March 11 and are said to be receiving  an annual salary of £555,000. 

Now they’re set to be away for nearly two months as part of the show’s annual summer break, which sees a rotation of guest presenters brought in to front the show in their absence.  

Friday favourites Alison and Dermot kicked off the summer shows on Monday, before a mix of familiar faces will return to the sofa.

Also stepping in to host will be Josie Gibson, Craig Doyle, Rylan Clark, Rochelle Humes and Joel Dommett, plus new mum Sian Welby also making her return to broadcasting since welcoming her baby daughter Ruby last month.

Ben and Cat return to ITV’s flagship daytime show on September 2, and Alison and Dermot return to fronting Fridays on September 6. 

This Morning’s editor, Martin Frizell, said of the summer lineup: ‘Viewers will not want to miss a moment this summer! 

‘The shows will be packed and whatever the weather, the team in front of the cameras and behind will deliver plenty of content to keep the nation smiling. 

‘I’m delighted Alison and Dermot are kicking things off and together with our brilliant family of hosts – made up of the biggest names in TV – they will be serving up really exciting content on Britain’s biggest daytime show.’

However, viewers were left baffled when the early exit was announced on Thursday’s show. 

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, they shared: ‘Ben and Cat only joined #ThisMorning back in April of this year’; ‘Back in September?? 

‘Its July 11… ITS ONLY THE 11th of July part timers basically got TWO month off work what a Joke!’; ‘Let’s see if they do come back in September. Their viewing figures suggest maybe not #thismorning.’ (sic)

Other viewers were delighted by the shakeup, however, as they expressed their delight at seeing Irish presenter Craig back on their screens.  

Ben and Cat’s summer break comes weeks after they took time off for Easter. 

The duo enjoyed two weeks away from the programme in April, during which time Alison and Dermot fronted Monday to Friday for the fortnight. 

Ben and Cat were officially announced as the new This Morning hosts in February after months of whispers. 

Sources at the channel said that they were ‘thrilled’ at the signing of the pair after ‘so many obstacles had to be negotiated to get there’.

The Mail first revealed that the duo were top of the list but in December Cat turned down the role because she wasn’t able to commit the time to the programme.

However, after further negotiations and the offer of more money, she agreed. One source said: ‘Cat was the one they wanted all along and finally they have her. It is incredible news for them.’

It’s possible the reason for the sudden U-turn was financial, with Cat set to nab a bumper payday as the new host.

When reports of her joining the show first emerged last year it was claimed she and Ben would receive an annual salary of £555,000.

While hefty, the salary still paled in comparison to former hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, who were said to have been paid £700,000 annually for their role.

Holly left the show last October ‘for the sake of her family’ after discovering she was the target of a foiled kidnap and murder plot and has since not been replaced permanently.

Her departure came five months after Phillip’s, when his affair with a young male showrunner was made public, followed by claims of an increasingly strained relationship with his co-host.

Phillip bowed out of the spotlight following his affair scandal in May, which led to his departure from This Morning after over 20 years on the show.

After much speculation about his private life, his affair finally went public and he admitted he had been left ‘broken and ashamed’ but insisted he was not a groomer.

He said the affair ‘never came across’ as an abuse of power because he and his lover were ‘mates’. He told The Sun: ‘I was unprofessional, one time, in a 41-year career. There is no excuse. No one did anything wrong apart from me.’

In his first interview since leaving the broadcaster and This Morning, the 61-year-old presenter said: ‘I did not, I did not [groom him].

‘There are accusations of all sorts of things. It never came across that way because we’d become mates. I don’t know about that. But of course I understand that there will be a massive judgment, but bearing in mind, I have never exercised that.’

At the time, Phillip offered a number of apologies, including to his co-presenter of 14 years Holly and his wife of 30 years, Stephanie Lowe.

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player

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Source: Tampa Bay Times