MASTERCHEF is undoubtedly a brilliant concept.
It is must-see TV for all those amateur cooks who think they can rustle up a better risotto than the contestants — and want to see a bit of a fight over a flan.
It is heartening to see Masterchef viewers turning off from John Torode and Gregg WallaceUnpixs
I love it but I am also pleased the new series which aired this week has bombed, with nearly a million fewer viewers tuning in to watch disgraced Gregg Wallace and his shamed sidekick John Torode.
Because it proves that British people have common sense.
We don’t want to waste an evening watching a pair of men, who have been fired, back on the same show as though nothing has happened.
Do the BBC think we’re idiots?
By airing this series, bosses have once again let the victims down while kowtowing to their celebrity talent.
This has got to stop. Time’s up on the cover-ups.
Yes, I know the BBC say they deliberated over it, that they have chopped down the cheeky banter and supposedly took the decision to broadcast the show to be fair to all the contestants who participated in this series.
But what about the previous contestants?
Last month a report revealed a staggering 45 complaints were upheld against Wallace, including one of unwelcome physical contact and another three of him being in a state of undress.
So although it is right to consider the 12 new contestants, what about those from the previous series who bravely complained but are now going through more anguish knowing that the BBC don’t really care about their feelings?
Once again, all those high up in positions of authority — the decision- makers, the big bosses — are letting down ordinary people who have been on the receiving end.
I interviewed the comedian Frank Skinner this week who said he has found it baffling that, throughout all our grim TV scandals, those in power often didn’t bother to step in to help.
So do I. Many distressing cases could have been prevented, young women and men saved from abuse, if somebody senior had taken decisive action and done the right thing.
It is a decade since a damning report showed that serious failings at the BBC allowed serial predators Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall to sexually abuse nearly 100 victims without detection for decades.
A 2016 independent inquiry found even after the Savile and Hall cases, those working at the BBC were still worried about reporting potential abuse and daring to challenge the broadcaster’s biggest stars. That is not only shocking but tragic.
This was said to be because “an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC possibly because obtaining work in the BBC is highly competitive and many people no longer have the security of an employment contract”.
The BBC are showing lessons have not been learned from previous scandalsGetty
Fear and uncertainty
Fast-forward to today and there is more competition for jobs than ever before and less security of employment contracts.
So that fear and uncertainty must have grown too.
Which is why the bosses should have manned up and done the right thing.
But we know that lessons haven’t truly been learnt from all these sickening historic cases.
You only have to look at the mess at Strictly to see that, with women saying they have felt “distressed” and men being “abusive, cruel and mean”.
Others said they were scared of speaking out for fear of “victim shaming”.
Imagine being in the real world, in an office, where women — and men — were being made to feel like that.
I’m confident somebody in authority would, after a warning or two, trot them down to the HR department and get rid of them.
Bosses in TV land need to wake up to the real world and instead of seeing the stars as untouchable, realise that they are just members of staff who need to follow the same rules as the rest of us.
There is no place for weak-willed bosses choosing talent over the juniors.
The ratings flop of MasterChef may be just what was needed to create change.
While some bosses may have tolerated bad behaviour, the viewers — who keep them in their jobs — have made it clear they won’t.
And by switching off, they have hit those in power where it truly hurts and hopefully given them the true wake-up call they needed.
What a beaky blinder
IT isn’t often you can say that a pet is smarter than its owner.
But in the case of Mango, the parrot from Blackpool, you sure can.
When cops swooped on drug dens in the town, they seized large stashes of class-A drugs and a mobile phone belonging to the ringleader’s girlfriend, with videos of her pet parrot on it.
She had taught Mango to say “two for 25”, a reference to a deal for crack cocaine, which he had happily repeated for the camera.
Thanks to Mango’s talent, the drug gang was put behind bars for more than 100 years. So, who’s a clever boy then?
ONE of their catchphrases may be “devoted to the dough” but Papa Johns are running out of it. The money type, that is.
The pizza chain has closed 74 of its takeaway outlets, after pre-tax losses of £21.8million in the latest financial year.
But when you’re charging more than £20 for a soggy cheese and tomato pizza, it kind of serves you right.
Beer we go
THE new Premier League season should come with a health warning.
The Geordie seemed baffled the other day when he did a rare hop on the scales and discovered he’d lost half a stone.
There was much discussion about the length of dog walks, summer gardening and dad swimming duties on holiday before we realised the only health kick he’d had was related to football . . .
He hasn’t been playing it, but nor has he been slumped on the sofa watching it for endless hours a week with a beer in hand.
PANIC at East Anglia University, that their new intake of Chinese students may scoff poisonous conkers thinking they’re like water chestnuts.
So they put up signs saying: “These are not chestnuts, eating them will make you unwell.”
Might have made more sense to give the warning in Chinese, too.
Katie’s escape from reality
Katie Price’s daughter Princess now has her own reality TV showGetty
Mum Katie is unhappy she has not been involved with the show or the promotional eventsGetty
I GET why Katie Price is annoyed.
She says producers of her daughter Princess’s new reality show have banned her from taking part.
Katie moans: “I haven’t been allowed to go on any photoshoot, no signings or Superdrug openings or anything like that.”
Most people would call it a lucky escape.
Peril of jab delay
The NHS has botched the rollout of the Mounjaro jabs, prompting Brits to seek alternativesGetty
A CONTROVERSIAL new daily weight-loss pill is being rolled out as a cheaper, more tolerable alternative to skinny jabs.
It sounds fantastic, with a trial showing patients shed 2st after taking it for 18 months, and now the plan is to make it widely available on the NHS next year.
But the problem is the NHS has already well and truly ballsed up distribution of Mounjaro.
This week The Sun revealed that – even though the fat jab was approved for weight loss on the NHS in December 2024 and supposedly became available in June – just EIGHT of the 42 UK health service boards have managed to prescribe it so far.
So that’s less than a quarter of them, which is just embarrassing.
Making the jabs widely available could save the NHS millions by slashing the cost of treating obesity, but they’ve mismanaged and underfunded the roll-out.
Which means those who truly need it will either buy from dangerous black market sources or die from their obesity related illness.
Yet another NHS shambles.
A thin excuse
TALKING of weight, or lack of it, high street chain Zara has given a strange response to a backlash over their use of apparently “unhealthily thin” models with “protruding” collarbones.
After taking down the ads, they insisted they’d done nothing wrong as both models had medical certificates proving they were in good health when the pictures were taken.
But there is something wrong if the model you’re working with is so skinny you need to check if it’s because she’s sick.
It’s time for the fashion world to promote poster girls who aren’t forced to starve.
It sets a dangerous example to little girls.
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