ITV boss says there's 'no place' for Jeremy Clarkson's views on Meghan

2023-01-19

ITV boss puts boot into Jeremy Clarkson – saying there’s ‘no place on the channel’ for the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host’s views about Meghan

Carolyn McCall said Jeremy Clarkson’s views are ‘in no way endorsed’ by ITV
In a letter to an MP Ms McCall said there is ‘no place’ for his views on the channel
It comes as the channel weighs up whether to renew his contract as a host
There are reports Amazon already decided to stop funding some of his shows

The head of ITV has said there is ‘no place on the channel’ for Jeremy Clarkson’s views about Meghan Markle.

Carlyn McCall, who is CEO of the firm, stuck the boot into the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host as the channel weighs up whether to renew his contract.

In a letter to MP John Nicolson, the 61-year-old said his views are ‘in no way endorsed by ITV’, adding that his role as host of the show ‘does not provide a platform for his opinions’.

The TV personality is already counting the cost of his views, amid reports that Amazon will no longer produce his shows Clarkson’s Farm and The Grand Tour from next year.

Jeremy Clarkson (pictured), host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, issued an apology for remarks he made about Meghan Markle on Tuesday

Carolyn McCall, boss of ITV, has written in a letter there is ‘no place’ for Clarkson’s views at the channel

It comes after he wrote a column in The Sun, in which he said he ‘hated’ Meghan Markle and wanted to see her paraded through the streets naked while people throw ‘excrement’ at her – apparently referencing a public shaming scene from the fantasy TV series Game of Thrones.

Following outrage, he wrote to the Sussexes to apologise on Christmas Day – although the couple later claimed his letter only addressed Harry directly – before he shared a lengthy public apology on his Instagram account yesterday.

However, his future at ITV seems to hang in the balance.

Ms McCall wrote her letter to Mr Nicolson in response to correspondence he sent asking if Clarkson’s comments went against ITV’s Statement of Programme Policy and Social Purpose Strategy.

In her response, which was published by entertainment website Deadline, did not say whether he would lose his job, but said concerns about his comments were ‘completely understandable’.

She said that ‘ITV has no editorial control over Jeremy Clarkson’s independent journalistic output in The Sun or anywhere else he chooses to publish’.

‘Everyone at ITV is very aware of our responsibilities as a Public Service Broadcaster and I’d like to be clear that the comments made were Jeremy Clarkson’s own and are in no way endorsed by ITV,’ she wrote.

‘There is no place on ITV for the comments made in that article.’

She added that in his role as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Clarkson is not given a platform for his opinions.

Earlier this week the channel said it will have ‘no further commitments’ with Clarkson after the next series of the show airs this year, sparking suggestions he had lost the gig which earns him around £3million per year.

Bosses at the broadcaster declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline about the reports.

But when asked directly if Clarkson would be presenting the show, a spokesperson said ITV ‘has a further series contractually commissioned and due to film’, adding that there was ‘no further commissioning commitments beyond that currently.’

Clarkson wrote in the Sun that he ‘hated’ Meghan Markle (pictured) and wanted to see her paraded through the streets naked while people throw ‘excrement’ at her

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Kevin Lygo, ITV’s Director of Media and Entertainment, previously said in December that he had ‘no control’ over what Clarkson wrote in his columns but did go as far as asking him to apologise.

Asked if Clarkson would be kept on as host of Millionaire, Mr Lygo said: ‘Yes, at the moment we are. What he says in the papers we have no control of.’

Clarkson is thought to be paid about £3 million a year to present the hit quiz show, having taken over from Chris Tarrant in 2018.

But the Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff reports that he was due to film celebrity special editions of the show next month, before they were pushed back due to ‘scheduling issues’.

The studio, crew and celebrities were all booked to attend the Dock 10 studio in Manchester and arrangements for the programmes – which would have raised money for charity – were finalised.

‘He wrote solely to Harry’: The Sussexes’ pointed put down to Jeremy Clarkson as they reject his emailed apology for column saying he hated Meghan – as it emerges Amazon Prime ‘is set to drop the presenter’

However at the end of last week, the production company told participants that filming had been postponed due to ‘scheduling issues.’

An email said: ‘Owing to some movement in the ITV schedules, we’re now unable to record the planned Celebrity specials until later this year.’

Fans of the 62-year-old fear he is being ‘cancelled in front of our eyes’ after it was reported that Amazon Prime is set to stop producing the presenter’s shows – Clarkson’s Farm and The Grand Tour – next year, the latter of which earns him at least £10million annually.

On Monday night, a virtual press conference to promote the second season of Clarkson’s Farm was cancelled by Amazon at the last-minute, although the series will still be available for streaming from February 10.

In his apology, Clarkson had admitted that Amazon executives were ‘incandescent’ following his column, with reports suggesting the company will be unlikely to work with him in the near future.

It comes as some critics implored the Sussexes to ‘move on’ from the ‘drama’, suggesting their quest for the ‘total humiliation’ of Clarkson by publicly rejecting his apologies goes against the ‘compassion and love’ that they so often preach.

Ann Widdecombe was among the commentators who rallied round Clarkson yesterday, as she blasted ‘cancel culture’, adding that she has ‘a very low opinion of people who reject apologies’, in a clear criticism of Harry and Meghan.

However others branded the presenter’s contrition insincere, accusing the TV star of failing to address the offence caused by his column and of being motivated by his own lucrative career interests.

Prince Harry branded the article about his wife Meghan Markle ‘horrific, hurtful and cruel’

In a lengthy statement on his verified Instagram account, The Grand Tour presenter said he emailed the couple on Christmas Day to say his language in the column had been ‘disgraceful’ and he was ‘profoundly sorry’

The piece, in which the 62-year-old TV presenter said he dreamed of the duchess being paraded through British towns and publicly shamed, became the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s (Ipso) most complained-about article after its publication.

Jeremy Clarkson says he’s been banned by council bosses from selling farming book at Diddly Squat farm shop

The Sun later apologised and said it regretted the publication of the column which last week surpassed more than 25,000 Ipso complaints.

In a lengthy statement on his verified Instagram account, The Grand Tour presenter earlier said he emailed the couple on Christmas Day to say his language in the column had been ‘disgraceful’ and he was ‘profoundly sorry’.

He said: ‘One of the strange things I’ve noticed in recent times is that whenever an MP or a well-known person is asked to apologise for something, no matter how heartfelt or profound that apology may be, it’s never enough for the people who called for it in the first place.

‘So I’m going to try and buck the trend this morning with an apology for the things I said in a Sun column recently about Meghan Markle. I really am sorry. All the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head. This is me putting my hands up. Its a mea culpa with bells on.

‘Usually, I read what I’ve written to someone else before filing, but I was home alone on that fateful day, and in a hurry. So when I’d finished, I just pressed Send. And then, when the column appeared the next day, the landmine exploded.’

Clarkson described the moment he picked up a copy of the Sun to ‘see what all the fuss was about.’

He continued: ‘We’ve all been there, I guess. In that precise moment when we suddenly realise we’ve completely messed up. You are sweaty and cold at the same time. And your head pounds. And you feel sick. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Had I really said that? It was horrible.

‘I knew what had happened straight away. I’d been thinking of a scene in Games Of Thrones, but I’d forgotten to mention this. So it looked like I was actually calling for revolting violence to rain down on Meghan’s head.

‘I was very angry with myself because in all those controversial days on Top Gear, when I was accused of all sorts of things, it was very rarely sexism.

Harry and Meghan refused to accept Jeremy Clarkson’s Christmas Day apology

Sussexes cheerleader Omid Scobie today tweeted a statement from a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan accused Clarkson of ‘spreading dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny’.

It read: ‘On December 25, 2022, Mr. Clarkson wrote solely to Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex.

‘The contents of his correspondence were marked Private and Confidential.

‘While a new public apology has been issued today by Mr. Clarkson, what remains to be addressed is his long standing pattern of writing articles that spread hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny.

‘Unless each of his other pieces were also written ‘in a hurry’, as he states, it is clear that this is not an isolated incident shared in haste, but rather a series of articles shared in hate.’

‘I was mortified and so was everyone else. My phone went mad. Very close friends were furious. Even my own daughter took to Instagram to denounce me.’

Clarkson’s statement went on to say ITV and Amazon, which airs Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and The Grand Tour respectively, were ‘incandescent’.

He said: ‘The Sun quickly apologised and I tried to explain myself. But still, there were calls for me to be sacked and charged with a hate crime.

‘More than 60 MPs demanded action to be taken. ITV, who make Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and Amazon, who make the Farm Show and the Grand Tour, were incandescent.

‘I therefore wrote to everyone who works with me saying how sorry I was and then on Christmas morning, I emailed Harry and Meghan in California to apologise to them too.

‘I said I was baffled by what they had been saying on TV but that the language I’d used in my column was disgraceful and that I was profoundly sorry.’

Clarkson said he will ‘try’ to be ‘interesting and vigilant’ at the same time in future columns.

His statement concluded: ‘Over the last 30 years, I have written very nearly five thousand newspaper and magazine columns, so it was inevitable that one day, I’d do a Harry Kane and sky one of the damn things. Which is what happened with the piece about Meghan.

‘So can I move on now? Not sure. It’s hard to be interesting and vigilant at the same time. You never hear peals of laughter coming from a health and safety seminar. But I promise you this, I will try.

‘Who knows? Very soon now I shall be a grandfather, so in future, maybe I’ll just write about that.’

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