The moment ITV lost its crown as channel of the people: DAN WOOTTON’S devastating verdict as its bosses squirm over what they knew about Phillip Schofield and claims their loyal audience were called ‘Tower Block Tracys’
A bombshell select committee appearance by its arrogant bosses today will go down as the moment where ITV lost touch with the working class audience it used to represent.
Mired in scandal over what it knew about Phillip Schofield’s affair with a young runner, of which virtually everyone at the broadcaster was aware, and a toxic culture behind-the-scenes, its flawed approach soon started to unravel under the lightest questioning from MPs.
Emerging from her self-imposed hibernation was uber woke CEO Dame Carolyn McCall, the three million pound-plus a year boss who it seems to me has tried to purge the channel of anyone who dares disagrees with the views espoused by her acquaintance Meghan Markle.
Remember, this is the holier-than-thou woman who was happy to part company with Piers Morgan, Jeremy Clarkson, Carol McGiffin and Eamonn Holmes who all fail to share in the Sussexes’ privileged sanctimonious left-wing philosophy, but was slow to properly look into behaviour by the This Morning presenter, which she now concedes she had heard rumours about and agrees it was ‘inappropriate’ given the power imbalance.
The inconsistencies and contradictions on display were worthy of an episode of the BBC spoof W1A.
Emerging from her self-imposed hibernation was uber woke CEO Dame Carolyn McCall, the three million pound-plus a year boss who it seems to me has tried to purge the channel of anyone who dares disagrees with the views espoused by her acquaintance Meghan Markle.
When Schofield admitted to a sexual relationship with the young runner – who he first met at 15, followed on social media, got work experience on This Morning, before helping him land a permanent job – ITV insisted on the record that it first ‘investigated’ the rumours in early 2020.
Not so, according to McCall, who now says, ‘it was not an investigation…it was an ongoing review.’
By effectively admitting that it’s impossible to even believe ITV’s own statements on the subject, their credibility felt shot.
No wonder I’m told the young runner, who is now referred to only as Person X, is beginning to question claims about him made by his former employer in what looks like a massive operation to cover their own backsides.
SNP rottweiler John Nicolson, an-ex ITV News star who had actually bothered to do his own research, soon backed that up.
Speaking of the so-called investigations by ITV, Nicolson said the runner felt it was ‘quite difficult’ to talk honestly to the network executives who were said to have grilled him 12 times about rumours of a relationship.
‘The words used were, ‘Is everything OK between you and Phillip?’ He felt he couldn’t answer that with much candour,’ Nicolson explained.
McCall bristled: ‘I want to be very clear it was Phillip putting him under pressure [to pretend everything was OK] and not ITV putting him under pressure.’
Despite suggestions that Schofield is paying the young man’s legal bills, Nicolson revealed that isn’t the case, with the high-powered London firm Mischon de Reya actually working pro bono because ‘they are concerned about some aspects of the story’.
That appears to back up my reporting that the runner disagrees with some of the public statements made by ITV and Schofield over the case, but is reluctant to speak out because he is hoping to avoid his identity entering the media.
McCall never denied knowing about rumours of the relationship as far back as December 2019.
That would have been impossible, given I had gone to her right-hand man Paul Moore with details of the story, which he dismissed on the record as ‘malicious gossip’.
When Schofield admitted to a sexual relationship with the young runner – who he first met at 15, followed on social media, got work experience on This Morning, before helping him land a permanent job – ITV insisted on the record that it first ‘investigated’ the rumours in early 2020
I also revealed in a MailOnline exclusive that a This Morning whistleblower emailed her personally in February 2020 asking her to suspend Phillip from the show and launch an investigation. They didn’t even receive a courtesy reply.
McCall kept insisting she needed to establish if the dressing room sex was ‘rumour or speculation or if it was malicious’.
‘No one brought us any evidence,’ she groaned.
What did she want? Pictures? ‘Anything that would have been tangible,’ McCall answered.
Was the bust-up at the National Television Awards, when the runner declared his love for Phillip in front of the channel’s biggest stars and executives not enough?
ITV’s general counsel Kyla Mullins was asked about how the runner managed to get the job in the first place and she confirmed a long running rumour that he’d said he was a family friend of Schofield.
Even then, however, she says it set off ‘no alarm bells’ for the broadcaster and ‘no one looked into that’.
Nicolson added: ‘Did anyone look into whether Phillip followed him on social media when he was very young?’
Once again, the answer was no.
ITV’s all powerful director of television Kevin Lygo managed to apparently contradict himself within an hour.
At 10.28am he told the committee Schofield had chosen to quit This Morning after telling him: ‘There’s too much noise, I don’t want to do it anymore.’
But just 34 minutes later, when asked who made the decision for Schofield to leave This Morning, he reversed his story, admitting: ‘I did, ultimately.’
He said the staff couldn’t cope with the ‘relentless media speculation’.
Lygo’s only real line of defence was that he had been taken in by Phillip.
‘He looked me in the eye and promised me there was no truth in the rumours,’ he said.
The inconsistencies and contradictions on display were worthy of an episode of the BBC spoof W1A, writes DAN WOOTTON
But on the specific details, even McCall and Lygo could see their explanations looked ludicrous.
Phillip requested the runner to work with him directly on Dancing On Ice, but still no one asked any questions.
And what about the high production value showreel he was allowed to make, hosting cooking and showbiz segments, while interviewing Phillip and Holly on the set of This Morning, all using ITV’s expensive crew?
McCall explained it away by claiming that ‘runners are very ambitious’ and those requests ‘would normally be granted’.
Cue a text from a former senior ITV Daytime staffer to me casting doubt on this and saying: ‘Every runner at ITV should ask the head of daytime for a full studio shoot featuring This Morning’s studios and presenters, given McCall claims this is so normal!’
On the overall toxicity, the pair insisted it was just bitterness from former stars like Eamonn Holmes and Dr Ranj whose work had been reduced.
Lygo suggested the ‘vocal criticism’ from that pair was because ‘they wanted more work’ on the channel having felt they had a ‘feeling of divine right to stay there forever’.
But that didn’t stack up with the 128 formal complaints made over the past five years, including five on This Morning, two of which specifically related to bullying or harassment.
And what about This Morning’s editor Martin Frizzell joking about aubergines to a young female Sky News reporter when asked about the bitterness on the show? McCall would only say that was a ‘foolish and ill-advised comment’.
Failing to display a scintilla of regret, McCall said ‘at the moment’ there was nothing the company could or should have done differently.
If there’s a cover up, could people be sacked? She refused to answer.
Indeed, the only moment of pride for the woke broadcaster was when they could boast about gender pay parity between Phillip and Holly, after Fern Britton quit in part because she was paid hundreds of thousands of pounds less than her male co-presenter.
‘A lot has changed since then,’ McCall nodded proudly, allowing Lygo to confirm Phillip and Holly were ‘on the same wage’ when he left.
The problem with ITV is much of what they are saying is totally hypocritical.
They attacked Schofield publicly time and again during the hearing, while lambasting the media for hounding him and boasting they’re funding his counselling.
They claimed that Caroline Flack had been guaranteed she’d get her job back on Love Island, when I know from conversations personally with the late star that she’d received no such assurances, despite asking for them.
The scandalous treatment of contestants on the X Factor, including whistleblower Rebecca Ferguson, who had directly asked McCall for a meeting, were shrugged off because the show was made by an external producer.
And then possibly the most damning moment about the middle-class snobbery that permeates ITV came when Nicolson asked if they’d heard that daytime production teams on This Morning referred to their viewers as ‘tower block Tracys’.
McCall recoiled in faux disgust and spluttered: ‘It’s a horrible phrase.’
But you just knew what he was saying was true and I think, as a result of this cover up and PR disaster that has followed, many loyal viewers will never trust This Morning or the channel its broadcast on again.
ITV has lost its crown as the channel of the people.
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