'This Morning' is set to hire a Black presenter for the first time.
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield
The ITV show is currently hosted by Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield from Monday to Thursday with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on Fridays but channel bosses are eager to hire a main Black presenter to "better represent contemporary British life on screen", according to the Daily Star.
While Alison Hammond works as a reporter on the show, bosses are keen to "increase the diversity of presenters of ITV's highest profile programmes" and this includes recruiting a Black presenter for 'This Morning' for the first time in the show's 32 year history.
Last month it was claimed that the show's editor Martin Frizell told staff: "There is not a Black presenter on any of the programmes today. We plan to change that, we ['This Morning'] are looking into it."
An ITV source said: "It's a tough one for Martin. He appeared to really mean what he said so it will be difficult to simply give the presenter the once-a-week Friday slot because he would leave himself open to claims of tokenism."
Another insider added: "Kudos to Frizell for being the first ITV boss to pledge to make this happen. What we are all wondering now is, 'Will anyone go and, if so, who?'"
Along with hiring a Black presenter for 'This Morning', ITV is also said to be planning to diversify the channel with more Black, Asian and ethnic minority stars, across its shows.
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