Day ITV had just one non-white presenter
...but which of these much-loved stars would bosses axe to get more minorities on screen?
THE BBC was once famously condemned as ‘hideously white’ by its own director-general, Greg Dyke.
Now, 18 years on, rival broadcaster ITV is confronting its own lack of on-screen diversity.
Network chiefs are holding meetings to address the fact that its programming is dominated by white faces.
The Mail on Sunday analysed a typical day’s output last week, and found just one ethic minority presenter, the lunchtime news anchor Nina Hossain.
But with so many hugely popular stars in its line-up, ITV executives would be faced with a difficult choice of who to axe if they wanted to recruit a more diverse range of people.
One source at the broadcaster said: ‘There is a bit of a quandary because the shows are immensely popular. How do you replace some hugely loved household names?’
We studied the ITV output from 6am to midnight last Tuesday, one of the few days whose schedules were not disrupted by the Rugby World Cup. Our panel, right, shows how the day was dominated by white presenters from Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain to The Jonathan Ross Show at 11.10pm.
Out of 18 hours of output, just 24 minutes were presented by a nonwhite broadcaster. Nina Hossain, whose father is from Bangladesh,
‘It’s vital broadcasters reflect the UK’s diversity’
fronted the 1.30pm news bulletin made by ITN, which has run a successful diversity initiative for several years.
Other days scored better for diversity. Monday featured businesswoman Saira Khan on Loose Women and Sir Trevor McDonald presenting To Catch a Serial Killer, while on Friday, Ranvir Singh hosted the early-evening news while Ms Hossain fronted News At Ten.
ITV also suffers from a lack of diversity away from the studio.
The ten members of its senior management team are all white, and there is only one non- white person out of 11 on its board of directors, Salman Amin.
Last month regulator Ofcom said ITV was behind the rest of the industry in promoting people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. Yesterday Ofcom said: ‘It’s vital that all broadcasters reflect the true diversity of the UK.’
ITV said last night: ‘Our aim is for our programmes to reflect the diversity of our audiences. Our overall on-screen BAME representation exceeds the population level with a range of established, wellknown and emerging BAME figures across our shows.
‘We recognise there is more to do and are fully committed to continuing to improve, having published new targets for increasing diversity over the next three years.’