It appears ITV has made a call on Jeremey Clarkson's future with the broadcaster over a year after he criticised the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, in a newspaper column.
The former Top Gear presenter wrote a column for The Sun about Markle back in December 2022 where he said he hated her on a “cellular level” as well as including various other insults.
Clarkson, 63, was widely criticised for the article and as part of the fall out it was thought his role as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on ITV would be taken away.
Jeremey Clarkson's future on ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire revealed
Despite his comments about Markle it seems Clarkson is set keep his role as host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on ITV, according to The Mirror.
It has been reported the makers of the show, Stellify, have been given the green light to create more episodes with Clarkson at the helm.
A senior source at Stellify, speaking to The Mirror, said: “Clarkson made a big mistake with his column, but unusually for him, he did apologise wholeheartedly afterwards.
"This helped him compared to someone like Piers Morgan who refused to make a U-turn on his comments about Meghan on GMB.
“ITV have been playing a waiting game to see how things look and how people have been reacting to new episodes going out this year of Millionaire with Clarkson.
"There has been no huge reaction and so a decision has been made to continue with him in the chair.
"It is a second chance for Clarkson but if he were to overstep the mark again it’s unlikely there will be a third chance.”
The Clarkson's Farm star has been host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on ITV since 2018 after taking over from previous presenter Chris Tarrant.
ITV did not officially confirm the news saying commissioning decisions were made on a series-by-series basis and there were new episodes featuring Clarkson still yet to be released.
In a statement, ITV said: “There are more brand new episodes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that will be played on ITV later this year.
"As is typical with such shows, we make commissioning decisions on a series-by-series basis and as such we are yet to confirm further commissioning commitments beyond that.”
ITV boss Kevin Lygo was quizzed about the future of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire this week, according to The Mirror.
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Mr Lygo said: “What I would say, there’s still quite a number of episodes to yet play out. It’s doing well at the moment, we’ll continue to monitor how it does.
"As you know, I never like to say we will or we won’t be recommissioning until a series has finished its transmission and we can properly assess how it’s done.
"We’re very pleased with how it’s doing now, but there are something like another 8/9 episodes to go out.
"Some continuing now, some later in the year, then we’ll take a view at that point. We’re delighted with the performance so far.”
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