GB News stars issue heartbroken statements as huge show | UK News

GB News presenters have been left devastated after they revealed the late-night comedy show Headliners has been axed. The panel show has been a mainstay on the community since its inception back in 2021, but in latest months the show has come under scrutiny. The format sometimes featured principally right-leaning comedians.

Now, it seems as though the show has been taken off the airwaves for good as a number of presenters took to X – previously identified as Twitter – to break the information to their loyal legion of followers online. Host Josh Howie introduced: “I was informed earlier today that with immediate effect Headliners is over.

“I’m gutted. I’ve done my best behind the scenes to argue for its continuation, but it’s not my call. What upsets me most is my genuine love for the Headliners format.

“It could’ve worked on any channel, but it was at GB News where it found a warm home with the channel’s dedication to dealing with the news in a fresh open manner, unbeholden to the accepted narratives of legacy media. I believe that the media landscape, and even public discourse will be lesser for Headliners’ absence.

“For many, we were the last show they watched at night, or the first they watched in the morning. It has a dedicated and vocal fanbase, and even with those who disagreed on various subject, I’ve always been appreciative of your mutual passion for the show.”

Presenter Leo Kearse wrote a lengthy statement reflecting on his time on the show, which read: “I guess the cat has been some distance from the bag for a while now but it’s official – Headliners is no more.

“I’m really proud to have helped GB News shift the Overton Window until it looks out over the green fields of Albion instead of glum communist concrete.

“And I’m proud that we had conversations other channels shied away from – grooming gangs, gender ideology, anti-white racism, two-tier policing, Renaud Camus, and Lucy Connolly.

“I know there are some hysterical claims about GB News flying around but honestly, they’ve always treated me incredibly well, and what a privilege to be paid to have a laugh with my friends. Headliners is perhaps too esoteric and anarchic for a news channel that’s moved from radical upstart to the respected mainstream.”

Simon Evans added: “Very proud to have hosted the first and, final night time what seems to have been the final of this great show. It fizzed all through with wit, robustly expressed opinion, occasional sparks of real friction, the lurking risk of anarchy and good quaint bantz proper up to the wire.

“There are always many considerations facing controllers but for my money, the axe never fell on a greener bough. A pleasure and an honour.”

Express.co.uk has reached out to GB News for a comment. Last month, the comedy newspaper review headline show was hit with tens of thousands of complaints after one of its hosts appeared to imply the LGBTQ+ community included pedophiles. The comment was made by comedian Josh Howie with Ofcom later launching an investigation into the incident.

In a segment discussing a sermon by a US bishop, which urged Donald Trump to “have mercy” on gay, lesbian, and transgender children, Mr Howie quotes a statement from the bishop’s church calling for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people.

He said: “I just need to say, that contains paedos, if you are doing the complete inclusion.” The Headliners segment triggered more than 1,200 complaints by viewers, as well as a petition signed by more than 70,000 people from the campaign group the Good Law Project that has been handed to the regulator.

Mr Howie has since said that his remarks were intended as a joke, adding: “It’s a comedy show. Where three comedians make jokes as we review the next day’s newspapers.” GB News has said that the comedian has been “misrepresented”.