BBC hits the target... just

The BBC's commitment to banning all-male panel shows has led to the bare minimum of women appearing on them.

In February last year, BBC head of television Danny Cohen controversially made public a vow that there would be at least one woman on every panel show.

But as it was announced that Sandi Toskvig will become the first permanent female host of a mainstream comedy panel show on TV when she takes over from Stephen Fry next year, the position has barely changed.

An analysis of panels by Buzzfeed found that most shows have the minimum of just one female panelist per episode.

Since then, Mock The Week – the programme usually at the centre of sexism claims because of its large number of male regulars – has had a single women on every episode.

Have I Got News For You broke the barrier with two female contributors twice out of 29 episodes, and three once. QI has had two episodes with two out of the five celebrities as women and one with three.

Cohen – who this week made the surprise announcement that he was leaving the BBC – was criticised at the time of his announcement as it would make it seem that any woman on a panel show was there because of tokenism, not talent.

Another survey on strudel.org.uk shows the position even more dramatically, by tallying up the number of men and women on the main panel shows on TV and radio since they began.

Worst offender is I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, which predominantly uses the same roster of panellists, so is just 3.5 per cent female.

That's followed by Dave's now defunct series Argumental (5.5 per cent); Mock The Week (9.3 per cent) and Have I Got News For You (12.8 per cent).

Only three of the comedy shows achieved or bettered 50 per cent women, the podcast Do The Right Thing – devised and presented by Danielle Ward – Radio 4's Dilemma, hosted by Sue Perkins, and Radio 2's Listomania, hosted by Susan Calman.

The News Quiz and Celebrity Juice also scored highly, although the latter tends to use celebrities more than comedians on its panels.

Published: 15 Oct 2015