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The new series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is pushed back to 2024 by a major shakeup – after host Jeremy Clarkson denied he was fired amid backlash over Meghan Markle’s column
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The new series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has been pushed back to 2024 in a major ITV scheduling shock.
The show, which has already filmed its new batch of episodes, was hit by the delay due to ITV’s coverage of the Rugby World Cup this autumn.
Millionaire is just the latest program to be hit by the World Cup-related delay, following hits Grantchester and The Jonathan Ross Show, which will now air next year.
It comes after host Jeremy Clarkson denied being fired from the show in March following his highly controversial newspaper column about Meghan Markle.
Clarkson took to Twitter to deny the claims, writing, “I have not been fired as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”
On hold: the new series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has been pushed back to 2024 in a major ITV scheduling shock
The former Top Gear host caused a backlash after she fantasized in a newspaper column about the Duchess of Sussex being paraded naked through the streets as people threw ‘excrement’ at her, in an apparent reference to a public embarrassment scene from the fantasy world. TV series Game of Thrones.
It prompted the press watchdog IPSO to investigate the column and sparked speculation that Clarkson’s hit shows on Amazon Prime had been withdrawn after bosses at the streaming service were reportedly left ‘glowing’.
His fans then feared he was ‘cancelled’ after ITV failed to confirm whether or not he would continue as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
ITV boss Carolyn McCall – who Piers Morgan previously claimed forced him out of Good Morning Britain – seemed to confirm Clarkson will not be continuing his post beyond the next series, which has already been filmed.
‘We have a contract. We’re contracted for this (season), so we’ll do that,” Ms. McCall told Variety magazine, adding, “And then we have no future obligations.”
Speaking of Clarkson’s column about Meghan, she added: “We don’t endorse that in any way… there’s no place for that on ITV.”
An ITV spokesperson told MailOnline earlier today: ‘As we’ve said before, ITV has another series of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? contractually commissioned (which is now established), and no further commissioning obligations beyond that at present.”
On hold: The show, which has already filmed its new batch of episodes, was hit by the delay due to ITV’s coverage of the Rugby World Cup this autumn
Stay (for now): It comes after host Jeremy Clarkson denied being fired from the show in March, following his highly controversial newspaper column about Meghan Markle
But the network later issued a revised statement, saying: ‘As we’ve been saying for several weeks, ITV is contractually committed to a new series of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (which is now included.)
“There are no further commissioning commitments beyond those currently in place, as is typical with such shows where we make commissioning decisions on a series-by-series basis.
Therefore, for the avoidance of doubt, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? nor Jeremy Clarkson have been canceled.”
It was also reported that a Celebrity Millionaire special was shelved after three of the female stars refused to work with Jeremy.
While ITV’s official line was reportedly that ‘scheduling issues’ have delayed production of the much-anticipated special, The mirror reported chaos behind the scenes led to the decision.
A source said: “The feelings were made very loud and very clear. Namely, that they did not want to share a platform with Clarkson and risk being seen as legitimizing his misogynistic remarks.
The decision to postpone filming of the special was first reported by the Alison Boshoff of Daily Mail Subsequently, ITV had also attributed the decision to scheduling conflicts.