When Alison Hammond was revealed as the new host of Great British Bake Off last week, it confirmed her rise to the top tier of British TV presenters.
But it has also angered ITV executives, who have privately expressed anger that Channel 4 poached their star to solve his “diversity problem”.
For despite all its attempts to be woke and inclusive, the rival broadcaster has been criticized for not having enough black faces among its marquee presenters.
While Hammond, 48, would hate any suggestion that her skin color had a bearing on her landing the coveted job, her appearance alongside Noel Fielding, Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood in the Bake-Off tent when she replacing Matt Lucas will certainly help address the lack of on-screen diversity.
It’s an industry-wide problem. More than 20 years after Greg Dyke called the BBC “hideously white” during his tenure as chief executive, all the channels are still striving to hire more presenters and off-screen staff from ethnic minorities.
When Alison Hammond was revealed as the new host of Great British Bake Off last week, it confirmed her rise to the top tier of British TV presenters.
In 2019, The Mail on Sunday revealed that the all-day outing on ITV, from 6 a.m. to midnight, featured only one non-white presenter, lunchtime newsreader Nina Hosain. The following year, veteran This Morning editor Martin Frizell, now 64, pledged to tackle the problem. Anxious to be seen as a pioneer of change, he told staff during a Zoom meeting in June 2020 that finding a black candidate “is not going to be easy.”
Initially, he didn’t seem to realize that the answer was right under his nose in the program’s bubbly showbiz reporter.
Ms. Hammond, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, joined the show shortly after appearing on Channel 4’s Big Brother in 2002. And over the years she has grown her profile as a bigger celebrity guest. than nature on other shows across the schedules, including ITV’s Loose. Women, BBC’s Strictly and MasterChef and Celebs Go Dating.
But on This Morning, executives continued to underestimate both her talents and her appeal to viewers, and she retained a relatively minor role.
With big-name presenters such as Fern Britton, Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield and husband and wife duo Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on the roster, it was tough for Hammond to break through and she didn’t have more than a few minutes of time. airtime each week as she was sent out to interview celebrities or perform vox pops with the public.
But in 2021, ITV bosses knocked out Holmes and Langsford. Suddenly a vacancy opened up and after being on the sidelines for so long, Alison was asked to host the show on Fridays with more experienced former X Factor host Dermot O’Leary.
Ratings jumped 44%.
The fact that she helped ITV solve its own diversity problem is a bonus, although friends of the remarkably ‘starless’ Brummie say she finds the suggestion that was part of the reason her friends from longtime were left out of the “uncomfortable” show.
ITV executives have privately expressed their anger that Channel 4 poached their star to solve his “diversity problem”. Pictured: Mary Nightingale and Alison Hammond in the TV program ‘Britain’s Best Dish – Celebrity Special’
Although they may have been slow to realize Hammond’s potential, ITV chiefs are incandescent that the star they nurtured has been poached for a prime-time role on one of the most most prominent of Channel 4. An industry insider said: ‘There has recently been a culture of other channels taking away from the ITV talent that it grew and nurtured.’ This is certainly the case with Alison Hammond.
“They found her, kept her in their stable for years, then finally gave her a break.” The BBC is equally jealous and bosses berate each other for a missed opportunity, given Strictly’s role in raising its profile.
The mother of one was also a judge on their Saturday night show I Can See Your Voice, which they recently canceled after two series.
For its part, Channel 4 is delighted with its new signing, with chief content officer Ian Katz gushing: “Alison is effortlessly funny and the owner of Britain’s best laugh.”
Across the board, broadcasters are still trying to solve their ‘diversity problem’ in mainstream programming and last month ITV presented its second all-black lineup on Loose Women. With sad inevitability, it drew vile racist comments on social media, but as another defending viewer put it: “Man, it’s been all white for 20 years.” Have a grip.’
