How female TV hosts have taken over prime time TV in just two years – and the ‘elephant in the room’ reason why

IT’S January 2024, and you are settling down to watch a spot of telly on a Saturday night. Strictly Come Dancing has waltzed off four weeks earlier — taking then-hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman with it — and Holly Willoughby is on hiatus. Stacey Solomon is now filming The Voice with a Girl Power gang – and also has two successful BBC series Sort Your Life Out and Stacey & Joe Credit: Getty Emma Willis is leading the new hosting trio for Strictly, having previously noted the lack of female talent on the box during her ten years presenting The Voice UK Credit: BBC Love Island star Olivia Attwood Island, who also hosts This Morning, has made three series of The Price Of Perfection and four of Getting Filthy Rich Credit: Getty Angela Scanlon, who has reported for The One Show since 2016, led the BBC’s coverage of Eurovision semi-finals in May after DJ Scott Mills was axed Credit: Getty The night’s presenting duties fall to Bradley Walsh, Michael McIntyre and Ant and Dec. Or perhaps it is Richard Osman, Romesh Ranganathan, Alexander Armstrong, Graham Norton or Joel Dommett. Sign up for the TV newsletter Thank you! Amid all the suits and boots, there was barely a woman to be seen as a main host on primetime TV. Apart from Davina McCall, appearing as a panellist on Joel Dommett’s show The Masked Singer. Claudia had returned, but to host The Traitors’ second run, midweek. AJ Odudu is back for an eight-week ITV2 series with Will Best, while GK Barry and Kate Lawler join the spin-off panel Credit: Getty Mel and Sue first teamed up on C4’s Light Lunch in 1997 before hosting seven series of Bake Off and now ITV quiz Win Win Credit: ITV Claudia Winkleman hosts BBC smash The Traitors and its celebrity spin-off after 15 years on Strictly, and is now in talks for ITV’s Hell’s Kitchen reboot Credit: PA Amanda Holden has judged ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent since 2007 and now hosts BBC quiz The Celebrity Inner Circle Credit: Getty But two years on and I’ve finally noticed a sea change, with a surge of female presenters bagging top jobs. Some shows are even swapping men for women. And, as a woman who reports on TV, I ask that you allow me this celebration as I expand on who is driving this change, how it has happened, and why it is under way. Most read in TV The Sun first noticed Saturday nights were awash with testosterone on January 13, 2024, when ten men dominated the box and not a single entertainment show on BBC One or ITV1 was fronted by a female host. The following month, ITV unveiled a line-up of new programmes, but once again guys ruled, with Lee Mack’s The 1% Club and Jeremy Clarkson’s Who Wants To Be A ­Millionaire? entering the fray. Of course, male or female, telly jobs should be handed to the best candidate to ensure the audience tunes in and keeps watching. But I refused to believe that on every single occasion, the male presenter trumped a female, and this paper duly kicked up a stink. But the times, they are a-changing. Maya Jama hosts Love Island, sits on The Masked Singer panel and is tipped to front The X Factor reboot Credit: Getty Alesha Dixon judges Britain’s Got Talent, co-hosts The Voice with Stacey Solomon and recently reunited with Mis-Teeq at Wembley Credit: Getty Grace Dent and Anna Haugh are taking over MasterChef after Gregg Wallace and John Torode were sacked, having previously appeared as guests on the show Credit: Getty TV regular Romesh Ranganathan is frequently on our screens Credit: BBC This Saturday, primetime BBC One and ITV have an equal balance of six men to six women. Our girls include Amanda Holden for The Celebrity Inner Circle and Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins’ Win Win — all owning the quiz space ­previously packed with boys. And there’s a rush of commissions on the horizon all championing the queens of the screen. Filming now — amid much drama over Sir Tom Jones’s axeing — is The Voice, which for the first time will now feature an equal balance of both sexes, with judges Will.i.am, rapper Aitch, Cheryl Cole and Kelly Rowland. And the two new female hosts — Alesha Dixon and Stacey Solomon — will swing the whole squad into a female majority. On ITV’s Big Brother, Will Best is outnumbered by co-host AJ Odudu, plus GK Barry and Kate Lawler from spin-off show The Group Chat. And he loves it. He told me: “Our show is full of wonderful, intelligent women. “Luckily, I’m an ally in the truest sense of the word. “So no, I don’t feel outnumbered. This is how I want it to be.” AJ added: “A bit of girl power! Bring on these smart, intelligent, funny women who are going to do this show proud.” ITV’s Love Island is another space where girls outrank boys. Maya Jama hosts the main series while on companion show AfterSun Toni Laites, Shakira Khan and Yasmin Pettet team up with lads Tyrique Hyde and Casey O’Gorman. Masked Singer host Joel Dommett Credit: Supplied Bradley Walsh brings us popular game show The Chase Graham Norton is an iconic Brit TV host Credit: Getty Elsewhere Maya has been tipped to front ITV’s potential reboot of The X Factor — a role once owned by Dermot O’Leary. In the same way, Claudia Winkleman is in talks to take on a new version of Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen. Another woman forging forward in a male-dominated field is Olivia Attwood, whose ITV documentaries have been streamed 233million times. She landed a Broadcast award for her hit series Getting Filthy Rich. Richard Osman was the brain box behind the Pointless desk Credit: Getty Michael McIntyre currently hosts Michael McIntyre’s Big Show and The Wheel Credit: Getty So it’s safe to say the future is well and truly pink. But why? The answer is two-fold. A TV insider said: “The elephant in the room here is very simply, as the history books state, male ­presenters are more often entangled in scandals than women. “Right now, women just tend to rank better with test audiences, too.” On MasterChef, the exceptional Grace Dent and Anna Haugh replaced Gregg Wallace and John Torode when both were sacked by the BBC; Wallace for alleged sexual misconduct and Torode for alleged racist language. Angela Scanlon was called on to host the Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals after Scott Mills was axed over claims of a historical sexual offence. The insider added: “All these women absolutely deserved the roles on their own merit. “But it is clear as day that execs felt the safe hands needed on these occasions had to be female.” Tomorrow Emma Willis will lead Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe in presenting the new-look Strictly Come Dancing. A fresh promo picture from the BBC puts Emma front and centre. The lack of women in primetime is something I first discussed with her in 2024, when she was fronting The Voice with just one woman, Leann Rimes, on the four-strong coaching panel. She pointed to the other barrier blocking women from big jobs — the juggle of fam­ily and home lives. Emma told me: “I think as long as you’ve got a couple of vocal, strong women there, it doesn’t matter. “It would be nice to have another woman, absolutely, but I don’t think it’s that they don’t want another woman. I think it’s just aligning diaries and making it work.” ITV has clocked on to the change and is celebrating with a campaign around it’s “huns” — the Loose Women, plus the likes of Alison Hammond on This Morning and Olivia Attwood’s reality realm. There does not need to be this battle of the sexes on the box and I maintain the way forward is each job being open to the best candidate. But for now the girls are on top — and it’s our time to shine. Comment now