Jeremy Clarkson offered 'lifeline' by ITV bosses after Meghan Markle controversy
ITV are set to hand Jeremy Clarkson a “lifeline” by allowing him to keep his job as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
The 63-year was widely criticised for a newspaper column he wrote about Meghan Markle in December 2022 and had been expected to lose his role as quiz host when the current series ran out later this year. But, just as happens on the quiz show itself, the presenter seems have been given a lifeline to carry on.
A senior source at Stellify, who makes WWTBAM, told the Mirror they will get the green light to make more shows giving away huge sums of money - and Clarkson will continue to be the one asking the questions. The source said: “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.
Jeremy is believed to be returning to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (ITV)“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. 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 the quiz since 2018 and took over from previous host Chris Tarrant for a revamped version of the hit series. Last night ITV would not confirm the news officially, with filming of the new episodes not due to begin for some months. In a statement, ITV said: “There are more brand new episodes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that will be played on ITV later this year.
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"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.” ITV boss Kevin Lygo was asked about Who Wants To Be A Millionaire this week in a conference call to business journalists discussing how the company had traded over the last 12 months.
Clarkson has fronted the show since 2018 and has been offered a 'lifeline' by bosses (Getty Images)Mr Lygo said: “What I would say, there’s still quite a number of episodes to yet play out. It’s doing well at the moment, we’ll continue to monitor how it does. As you know, I never like to say we will or we won’t be recommissioning until a series has finished its transmission and we can properly assess how it’s done. We’re very pleased with how it’s doing now, but there are something like another 8/9 episodes to go out. Some continuing now, some later in the year, then we’ll take a view at that point. We’re delighted with the performance so far.”
In his column just over a year ago, former Top Gear host Clarkson said he hated Markle on a “cellular level” as well as various other insults, and his article prompted a huge backlash. Clarkson apologised and later reached out to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as critics dubbed the column misogynistic.
But this did not look to be enough as ITV Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said they had “no future commitments” with Clarkson early in 2023 which led many to believe he would not be working on the show again. Last year she said: “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.”
ITV later clarified this did not mean he was finished with the channel and Clarkson followed up these comments with his own statement on X insisting “I have not been sacked as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire”.
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