Jeremy Clarkson and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire are not cancelled, ITV says

Jeremy Clarkson has not been axed from hosting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? despite widespread reports of his alleged departure, ITV has confirmed.

The broadcaster said “for the avoidance of doubt, neither Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? nor Jeremy Clarkson have been cancelled” after his reported exit from the show hit the headlines on Wednesday.

The security of Clarkson’s position as host of the much-loved quiz show was thrown into question in December after comments he made about the Duchess of Sussex in a column for The Sun newspaper.

The piece which said he “hated” Meghan and dreamed of her being paraded through British towns became the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s (Ipso) most complained-about article,.

TV presenter Clarkson later apologised for the piece, describing his language as “disgraceful” and said he was “profoundly sorry”. The Sun also apologised and said it regretted the publication of the column, which was removed online.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for ITV said: “As we have said for several weeks, ITV is contractually committed to a further series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (which has now been recorded.)

“There are no further commissioning commitments beyond that currently as is typical with such shows where we make commissioning decisions on a series by series basis.“

“Therefore for the avoidance of doubt neither Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? nor Jeremy Clarkson have been cancelled.”

Clarkson, who inherited the hosting gig from Chris Tarrant in 2018, later tweeted: “So many kind messages about today’s reports. But relax.

“Lisa and I have not split up and I have not been sacked as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”

ITV boss Kevin Lygo previously said Clarkson’s comments about Meghan were “awful”, but “at the moment” the broadcaster plans to keep him as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?