Blood on the sofa: GMTV stars at war after they swap partners

It looks as if there could be blood on the sofa at GMTV following a New Year shake-up which has apparently left all four of the breakfast show's stars with their noses out of joint.

Under the reshuffle, the presenters have been switched so that Fiona Phillips is paired with Ben Shephard at the start of the week, while Kate Garraway is teamed up with Andrew Castle at the end.

All four stars profess to being unhappy with the new arrangement, insisting they preferred the previous set-up where Phillips worked with Castle, and Garraway with Shephard.

But some, it seems, are more unhappy than others. Castle in particular sees the move as a demotion, spies tell me, because he is now presenting only two regular days a week.

And Phillips – seen by her bosses as the show's main star – has ruffled feathers further with news that she will present the programme four days a week for six weeks from next month.

The move means Garraway will be reduced to presenting just once a week – on Fridays.

A source says: "Fiona will present the show Mondays to Thursdays for six weeks because, apparently, she has been accidentally overbooked. This wouldn't normally happen as Kate has always had Thursdays and Fridays.

"Fiona is really flexing her muscles at the moment and now she has hinted she would like to present the show four times a week as a permanent term-time arrangement, which has annoyed some people.

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"There's gossip going round that this is Fiona's way of re-establishing her authority. It's true she was very upset with all the publicity Kate was getting doing Strictly Come Dancing."

Despite being married to the show's editor Martin Frizzell, Phillips has said she had no idea about the reshuffle.

GMTV said: "It's not a shake up.

"It's just a new year and things have changed a bit. Fiona will be doing a couple of four-day weeks but that sometimes happens. The rota is fluid."