Jeremy Clarkson will remain host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? “right now,” the ITV boss said, as the presenter’s comments about the Duchess of Sussex attracted a record number of complaints from press regulators.
Kevin Ligo said ITV had “no control” over what Clarkson said in his column in the Sun newspaper, but that “he should apologise” for his comments.
In a recent column for the Sun, Clarkson said she had a “hate” towards Meghan and dreamed of seeing her publicly humiliated in the street. Clarkson later said she was referencing a scene from Game of Thrones and asked that the column be taken offline because people had misunderstood it.
The Independent Press Standards Organization (Ipso) said Clarkson’s newspaper column had become the most complained about article in its history, attracting 20,800 complaints by Tuesday evening.
Ligo, the managing director of ITV Studios, told members of the Broadcasting Press Guild: “We have no control over what he says. We hire him as the perfect host of the most famous TV quiz Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
“So it’s not quite in our wheelhouse, but I don’t know what he was thinking when he wrote it. It was terrible.”
Asked if ITV would keep Clarkson as the show’s host, Lygo said: “Yes, we are. We have no control over what he says in the newspapers.
Asked if Clarkson represented ITV’s values, Mr Ligo said: “No, of course not in this case.”
On Monday, Clarkson responded to the controversy but stopped short of apologizing: “Oh dear. I’d rather put my feet up. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene from Game of Thrones, and it went down well with a lot of people. I am appalled that I have caused so much pain and will be more careful in the future.”
The issue comes amid renewed scrutiny of British newspaper regulation following the release of a Netflix documentary on Harry and Meghan, in which the royal couple aired their displeasure with the coverage they received.
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On Monday, the Guardian revealed that the chairman of Ipso, which will investigate the claims against Clarkson’s Sun column, was due to have dinner at Sun owner Rupert Murdoch’s apartment but pulled out earlier that day.
Ipso said it would take longer than usual to assess whether there had been any breach of its rules due to the volume of complaints. However, Ipso’s code does not cover matters of taste and propriety – meaning it is unlikely that Clarkson has broken any rules.
Press regulation campaign group Hacked Off seized on Clarkson’s column. She organized a letter signed by celebrities who had suffered media intrusion – including Sienna Miller, Steve Coogan and Simon Pegg – calling on the government to implement the recommendations of the Leveson inquiry into press regulation.
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