EYE TV
Match of the Day (BBC1) MasterChef (BBC1)
MULTIPLE layers of BBC middle management are titled “genre commissioners”, allotting responsibility for individual strands of programming such as docs, comedy or kids’. It might be time to add a specialist executive for the genre of naughty-step television.
The mid-August BBC1 schedules feature two flagship series from which the lead presenters have been sacked since the last one – Match of the Day and MasterChef – although the franchises continue to transmit.
The difference is that, in the football studio, new presenters have been substituted for Gary Lineker, who left after retweeting a post that featured an illustration of a rat (an antisemitic trope), while in the kitchen, Gregg Wallace and John Torode are being seen in the last series they made before respectively leaving over allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour or language and reported use of a racist epithet, although the BBC admits that edits have been made to reduce their presence and potential offence.