ITV viewers vow to switch off over 'Tower Block Tracys' row

ITV viewers vow to switch off after MP claimed This Morning producers refer to their audience as ‘Tower Block Tracys’ when discussing if segments would be too ‘highbrow’ for viewers

• MP John Nicholson said he’d been told ‘cruelly dismissive’ term used by bosses
• Chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said she’d ‘never heard’ of the phrase 

Viewers were left fuming at the ‘sheer level of class snobbery’ at ITV and vowed to never watch This Morning again after an MP accused bosses of referring to their daytime audience as ‘Tower Block Tracys’.

The SNP’s John Nicholson brought up the ‘cruelly dismissive’ term he’d been told had been used by production staff in meetings.

He suggested it was used to describe a section of its demographic who wouldn’t be attracted to ‘highbrow’ content.

Chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall and managing director Kevin Lygo both told a parliamentary committee yesterday that they’d ‘never heard’ the phrase.

It came in a two-hour grilling over the alleged ‘toxic’ culture at the broadcaster, which has made headlines following the departure of Phillip Schofield after admitting to an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a younger male colleague.

ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall was grilled on claims that This Morning bosses described a section of its audience as ‘Tower Block Tracys’

Mr Nicholson said: ‘If an idea is regarded as too highbrow, I’m told people say, ‘would that really appeal to the Tower Block Tracys?’ It’s a horrible thing to say.’

READ MORE: DAN WOOTTON’S verdict as its bosses squirm over what they knew about Phillip Schofield and claims their loyal audience were called ‘Tower Block Tracys’ 

Dame Carolyn said in response: ‘It’s not what ITV would be look at as a target audience, we wouldn’t describe our target audience in that way. 

‘I do know one thing, which is that the daytime team on every show really cares about the audience, so that surprises me.’

Furious viewers took to social media to slam the phrase, and praise Mr Nicholson for bringing it to light.

One wrote: ‘The sheer level of class snobbery revealed through the course of the ITV investigation has really concerned me. But hearing that communities have been referred to as ‘tower block Traceys’ is just unbelievably despicable. Thank you @MrJohnNicolson for holding ITV to account.’

Another said: ‘The sooner the current producers of #itvthismorning are ousted THE BETTER I could not believe what I heard when John Nicholson revealed he had evidence of them calling the viewers tower block Traceys there needs to be major changes to the show.’

A third tweeted: ”Tower Block Traceys’ really??? I’ll never watch another episode of This Morning. What an absolutely disgusting way to refer to the viewers at home! In fact, the whole show should just be scrapped! It’s well past its sell-by-date anyway, as are the producers!!’

A fourth added: ‘Tower block traceys, is insulting, it’s also been done on the anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, so, distasteful would be an under statement.’

The discussion came as Dame Carolyn admitted yesterday she failed to launch a formal investigation into Schofield’s affair when rumours emerged within the network.

The SNP’s John Nicholson brought up the ‘cruelly dismissive’ term he’d been told had been used by production staff in meetings

Dame Carolyn McCall (middle), managing director of media and entertainment Kevin Lygo (left) and general counsel and company secretary Kyla Mullins (right) give evidence

Schofield’s lover, referred to during the hearing as ‘Person X’, denied the relationship with the former host of This Morning ’12 times’ when quizzed, but an official probe was never launched.

Dame Carolyn was told by Mr Nicholson: ‘This morning you’ve talked about the way ITV talked to [Person X]. You’ve called it a review twice and an investigation once.’

She then interjected to clarify: ‘I’ve never called it an ‘investigation’. I might have said ‘investigated’. 

‘We did investigate, but I wouldn’t call it an ‘investigation’ because that gives it a kind of formality and structure that, because of the rumours and because of the time period, it didn’t have.’ 

In a statement last month, once the affair was exposed, a spokesman said: ‘ITV can confirm that when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in early 2020 ITV investigated.

‘Both parties were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours as did Phillip’s then-agency YMU.’

Dame Carolyn told MPs the ‘imbalance of power, the imbalance of dynamics’ made the relationship between Schofield and Person X ‘deeply inappropriate’, and ITV would have taken swift action, but no evidence of the relationship appeared during ongoing reviews. 

‘It was inappropriate to have a relationship with someone so junior in daytime,’ she added.

Schofield (pictured during his BBC interview) was axed by ITV after admitting to an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a younger male colleague

Schofield with the younger male colleague and This Morning co-host Holly Willoughby

She said ‘we were repeatedly told nothing was happening’, and both men denied it ‘both formally and informally’. 

‘There was only hearsay, rumour and speculation… nobody on the board would have turned a blind eye to something as serious as this,’ she said.

Dame Carolyn insisted bosses would ask more questions each time there were periods of ‘intense speculation’ and that the opportunity was available for anyone to have anonymously reported something about it at any time.

However, they did not feel they had any legal reasons to go forward with a formal investigation, which would have caused ‘a huge amount of damage’ for Person X, the committee was told. 

Dame Carolyn added that she didn’t feel ITV could have dealt with the rumours differently, but if an independent review into the affair finds it should have, the chief executive insisted it will learn from that.

In an explosive hearing in Westminster this morning, Dame Carolyn also said the channel does not recognise allegations of a toxic culture, while managing director Kevin Lygo launched an extraordinary riposte to criticism from axed former stars such as Eamonn Holmes.

It was also revealed that ITV is paying for Schofield’s counselling, with Dame Carolyn admitting she is ‘very concerned’ about his welfare.

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