KATIE HIND asks… Why ARE television chiefs so in thrall to the crass and sexist Jonathan Ross? 

Jonathan Ross has come under fire for engaging in raunchy on-screen banter with a comedian about his sex life.

His suggestive comments came after Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan performed a stand-up routine in which she shared intimate details of their relationship on her ITV New Year’s Eve show.

Ryan told the audience: “We’ve only been married a short time, but I still shit on my husband, heartily.”

After her performance, Ross, 62, chuckled as she repeated the line, “I’d still heartily fuck him…”

Although Jonathan Ross’ New Year’s Comedy Special aired after the 9:00 p.m.

Ryan told the New Year’s Eve audience: “We’ve only been married a short time, but I still do shit on my husband, heartily.”

At another point, Ryan talked about how her husband would leave her to play golf, saying, “I don’t have 18 holes, just three.”

The 39-year-old is known for sharing lewd anecdotes on the comedy circuit and he didn’t hold back, despite being on mainstream TV.

Although Jonathan Ross’s New Year’s comedy special aired after 9:00 pm, many children will have been watching, as their parents allowed them to stay up late to see in the New Year.

There was a quick reaction from viewers horrified by the show. On social media, people commented that it was “as funny as a crib death” and “the worst comedy show ever”, suggesting that “nothing speaks volumes about the decline of TV”.

Others wondered why TV bosses still allow Ross to smear their shows with rude comments.

The presenter was suspended by the BBC in 2008 following a national outcry over the so-called ‘Sachsgate’ affair.

He had appeared on Russell Brand’s Radio 2 show and the couple left rude messages on the answering machine of Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs, then 78, including demeaning sexual taunts about his granddaughter and “jokes” about her menstrual cycle. , all broadcast to the nation.

After Ross’s contract with the BBC ended, ITV rescued him from the slump and gave him a late-night talk show.

And his New Year’s Eve comedy special was taped in mid-December, so the producers would have had plenty of time to edit out Ross’s sordid exchange with Ryan.

Despite his reputation for lewd comments, ITV has given Ross a high-profile judging role on one of their biggest family shows, The Masked Singer.

However, ITV sources say bosses are ‘enslaved’ to Ross and point out that the show is made by production company Hotsauce run by Ross and his wife Jane, along with their in-house business, ITV Studios.

Insiders say ITV is well aware of the battle between Ross and his BBC rival Graham Norton to win the most viewers.

It is widely recognized that Norton has more prominent guests and some admit that Ross’s habit of ‘talking dirty’ to celebrities deters celebrities from joining him.

Notably, on New Year’s Eve, while Ross’s guests included Ryan, Loose Women panelist Judi Love, and comedian Bill Bailey, Norton secured Hollywood royalty Olivia Colman and Hugh Laurie.

Despite his reputation for lewd comments, ITV has given Ross a role as a high-profile judge on one of its biggest family shows, The Masked Singer, which launched its fourth series last weekend.

After Sachsgate, a story published by The Mail on Sunday, Brand disappeared from mainstream television.

Insiders say ITV is well aware of the battle between Ross and his BBC rival Graham Norton to win the most viewers.

Goaded on by Ross, Brand bragged on air about having sex with actor Andrew Sachs’ granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

At Ross’s instigation, he had bragged on air about having sex with Sachs’s granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

At the time, he said the broadcast “could permanently damage my life”, while Sachs, who died in 2016, said: “His lewd jokes were deeply hurtful… They caused not only pain but also great stress for the family”.

He blamed Ross more than Brand, believing that as the father of two daughters (as well as a son) he should have known better.

Following public outcry, broadcasting regulator Ofcom fined the BBC £150,000.

Both Brand and Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas resigned over the incident.

Ross, at the time the highest paid figure in the public sector, at £6m a year, was suspended for three months before returning, though he was criticized for not being remorseful enough when he vowed to be “more mindful” of offending viewers. .

His second chance was short-lived. In 2010 she ended her Tonight With Jonathan Ross show.

But while Brand has stepped away from mainstream broadcasting, Ross has been granted a lenient rehab with ITV, where he has continued to peddle his cheap formula of sexually offensive material.

His catalog of on-air controversies includes asking then-Tory leader David Cameron if he had ever masturbated when thinking about Margaret Thatcher; speculate on the taste of a racehorse’s semen; asking Tom Cruise if he passed gas in bed with his wife; and telling a distraught Gwyneth Paltrow that she was a milf, explaining that she meant “Mother I’d Like to Fuck”.

Last year, Ross criticized Radio 2 for becoming ‘risk averse’ and ‘boring’, having introduced more security measures after the Sachsgate incident.

ITV, by contrast, seems happy to take risks with Ross, even if in other areas the broadcaster slavishly follows a wakeful agenda.

ITV boss Carolyn McCall has spearheaded a campaign to promote female staff and recruit more members of ethnic minorities.

But perhaps the executives’ love for Ross betrays the truth that many TV bosses represent an arrogant London-based elite unaware of the attitudes of viewers across the country. Certainly the advertisers who finance ITV do not like offensive programmes.

ITV boss Carolyn McCall chaired a campaign to promote female staff and recruit more members of ethnic minorities.

Alert to campaigns like the Black Lives Matter movement, he was also responsible for Piers Morgan quitting Good Morning Britain after she told him to apologize to Meghan Markle after saying on air that she didn’t believe him when he said he had experienced suicidal thoughts. .

McCall also oversaw the launch of a series of self-care classes for staff, as well as networking groups, including one to support and empower women.

It is also interesting that many comedians are from the left and that there seems to be a revolving door of work between leftist newspapers and television companies.

McCall was previously the head of Guardian Newspapers, and Channel 4 content director Ian Katz was deputy editor of The Guardian.

His channel also regularly employs Ross as a panelist on comedy shows.

Of course, comedy is cutting edge, and an ITV spokeswoman said: ‘Jonathan’s New Year’s Eve show saw well-known comedians perform their own stand-up routines in a post-basin space. We received no complaints about the episode.

But why are countless comics getting a free pass from TV producers to express sexually offensive and misogynistic material?

For example, Jimmy Carr, who was embroiled in a tax evasion scandal, appears regularly, despite making insulting comments about people with Down syndrome and “joking” about the horrors of the Holocaust.

Ryan freely talks about sex during his stand-up shows. While this may be seen as a triumph for female empowerment, breaking male comics’ monopoly on sexual crudeness, others question whether feminism has failed if it simply means men praising women for making offensive jokes about sex. oral and genitals.

Last year, Ryan, who is young enough to be Ross’s daughter, recounted how she had ‘called out’ a man who worked in the entertainment industry, not Ross, labeling him a ‘predator’ to his face.

He freely talks about sex during his stand-up shows. While this may be seen as a triumph for female empowerment, breaking male comics’ monopoly on sexual crudeness, others question whether feminism has failed if it simply means men praising women for making offensive jokes about sex. oral and genitals.

Although the rude and misogynistic days of boys’ magazines are long gone and Russell Brand is now ostracized by the mainstream media, Jonathan Ross and his brand of crude sexual jokes are unquestioningly condoned by TV bosses.

Once, the justification for giving him his own show was that the host who can’t pronounce his ‘R’s was nervous and ‘incowwigible’.

Now, however, it simply stands as a conspicuous symbol of TV producers’ bad taste, lack of a moral barometer, and lack of empathy for their viewers.