Alison Hammond dealt blow as For The Love of Dogs ratings plummet to HALF of late Paul O’Grady’s in new season premiere
TV icon Alison Hammond has suffered a significant setback after ratings plummeted during her debut episode of For The Love of Dogs.
The late Paul O’Grady previously hosted the hit ITV animal rescue series.
Last night, The This Morning star presented a new series of For the Love Of Dogs following Paul’s death last year.
The programme’s premiere episode received an average audience rating of 1.84m and reached 2m viewers at its peak.
According to ITV ratings, Paul gained at least double the amount of audience views, with an average audience rating of more than four million viewers in 2021.
At the show’s peak in 2013, it racked up a whopping 5.35m viewers.
Last night, Alison welcomed viewers back to the hit ITV series but was quickly met with backlash.
Fans of For the Love of Animals have pointed out that Alison doesn’t have any pets, which lead them to believe that she isn’t as passionate about animals as Paul was.
The late Paul had three dogs, two of them rescued from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, where the show is filmed.
A few minutes after the show aired, viewers took to social media and slammed Alison for being “scripted” and failing to deliver a personal touch.
While the TV personality received a lot of backlash online, one viewer admitted they wanted to give the show a chance as they penned.
“First 15 mins, not as bad as I thought it might be.
“The main difference is when Paul O’Grady did this, he did it for his genuine love of dogs. With Alison Hammond, it feels like just another pay cheque.”
Despite the backlash, Alison will continue to present the series and has fired back at fans.
The mum of one told The Sun’s TV Mag: “I was actually surprised with how much I got for doing the show.”
“I could understand in the sense that Paul was so loved, and people were saying: ‘How can she do Love Of Dogs when she doesn’t have a dog? How does she love dogs when she doesn’t have a dog?’ It’s like saying: ‘How can you love children when you haven’t got kids?’
“It’s such a flawed argument for me, and all I would say is: ‘If you don’t want to watch it, don’t watch it.’ That’s what I would say to those trolls: ‘Don’t watch it then. If you don’t want to help Battersea, don’t watch it’.
She added: “Trolls will be trolls and I’ll still do what I do best, which is TV presenting and you’ll see for yourself, I think it’s authentic and I loved doing it.
“Trolls are trolls, it says more about them than it does me, really. I would never troll anybody, even if I thought it, I wouldn’t go online and put it down.”
Elsewhere Alison was recently pictured beaming with delight as she proudly cuddled a hunky mystery man.
The duo “looked like honeymooners” in a series of cute snaps shared online.
They couldn’t hide their joy as they squeezed each other while posing for snaps.