Jeremy Clarkson is to continue as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire despite attracting widespread public anger over comments he wrote about Meghan Markle in a December 2022 column for The Sun.
A senior source at Stellify, the producer of WWTBAM, told the Mirror: “Clarkson made a big mistake with his column, but unusually for him, he did apologise wholeheartedly afterwards. This helped him compared to someone like Piers Morgan who refused to make a U-turn on his comments about Meghan on GMB.”
ITV appeared to be hedging its bets over Clarkson’s future in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 remarks, committing only to the currently airing series, to which Clarkson was already contracted.
https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/news/jeremy-clarkson-not-cancelled/
ITV CEO, Carolyn McCall told Variety in an interview last March: “We have a contract. We’re contracted to this [season], so we will do that. […] And then we have no future commitments. And we haven’t made any statements about that.”
The ongoing success of the current series would appear to have dispelled any lingering doubts, however, according to Mirror’s source: “ITV have been playing a waiting game to see how things look and how people have been reacting to new episodes going out this year of Millionaire with Clarkson,” he said. “There has been no huge reaction and so a decision has been made to continue with him in the chair. It is a second chance for Clarkson but if he were to overstep the mark again it’s unlikely there will be a third chance.”
Clarkson has been hosting WWTBAM since 2018 when took over quizzing duties from previous host Chris Tarrant in a series reboot. His Sun column, which he later successfully asked to be withdrawn while apologising to its target, fantasised about watching a naked Markle paraded through the streets and pelted with excrement. It was widely criticised as misogynystic.
ITV has so far not officially confirmed the news, saying in a statement: “There are more brand new episodes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that will be played on ITV later this year.
“As is typical with such shows, we make commissioning decisions on a series-by-series basis and as such we are yet to confirm further commissioning commitments beyond that.”
Who Wants to be a Millionaire? is recored at MediaCity’s dock10 studios.
