Alison Hammond breaks silence on ITV For The Love of Dogs backlash

For the Love of Dogs' Alison Hammond has responded after being inundated with backlash since joining the ITV show on its reboot last week. The This Morning presenter took over from Paul O'Grady back in January, following his unexpected death in March last year, aged 67.

By her own admission, Alison has said she knows she will never be able to replace Paul, but was "excited" for the role. However, she has since said she was "surprised" by how much criticism she had received for doing the show.

One main disapproval that fans had was her 'bad habit' of overusing the word 'babs'. But she responded to a comment regarding that last night with a simple three-word response on Twitter.

A supportive user had commented: "@AlisonHammond I think you are doing an amazing job taking over from Paul and I know 100% he'd agree.And as for u saying 'Babs' , there's nothing wrong with it, it's a Term of Endearment, love it Babs!! Px". Alison responded as she said: "Love ya babs".

Another user wrote: "All those people judging before it was even shown. Shame on you. It is about the dogs & I’m sure Paul would have loved his programme being carried on. Alison was brilliant."

READ MORE... Alison Hammond slammed as fans fume 'how selfish' after boasting £2k free stay

Alison simply replied: "This" followed by a dog and a love heart emoji.

Someone else said: "I’ve watched this, and I watched with Paul as well. She’s doing a great job, and the complaints people have with her, I have to say I don’t really understand.

"They seem baseless and without any substance. I have a few suspicions about the real issues". Alison replied: "Me too" with a face holding back tears emoji.

Alison dismissed her critiques and said that their way of thinking was "flawed". She said: "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?’"

The 49-year-old presenter had a straightforward message for detractors, as she said: "If you don't want to help Battersea, don't watch it."

According to ITV ratings, Alison's debut episode reached two million viewers at its peak moment, while Paul had more than four million viewers per episode in 2021.