ITV's competition presenter Andi Peters has called the company's decision to ban using the word 'life-changing' for cash prizes as "ridiculous". The 51-year-old fronts several of ITV's daytime competitions on programmes such as Good Morning Britain, This Morning and Loose Women, in addition to doing a similar segment on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.
The Mirror reports that the presenter recently appeared on the What If? podcast - hosted by TV star Lorraine Kelly and her daughter Rosie Smith - and opened up about the "ridiculous situation" which led him to campaign in support of using the term. ITV insists that prizes of £100,000 or less are not life-changing, in fear that one of the competition's winners may sue the broadcaster.
An ITV spokesperson told The Mirror: "We choose language for the scripts of promoted ITV competitions carefully, within agreed editorial guidelines. The term 'life-changing' is only used for larger prize promotions of £100k or greater, where this amount could be considered as such for the majority of the audience."
Speaking about when he gave a £1 million giveaway, Peters said: "Six years ago, we gave away £1million and they wouldn't let me call the £1m life changing because – this is exactly what the lawyer said – 'if Richard Branson won, it wouldn't change his life'. So we argued back and said 'no, it would change his life, because in that minute he would be a £1m richer. That is life-changing'.
"Wouldn't let us say it. I took this all the way. I went all the way to the top. So now the rule is £101,000 and above is life-changing. That's the new rule. But if it's ninety-nine (thousand) I can't say it's life-changing."
He also recalled about a giving a prize to a Good Morning Britain viewer which he believes changed her life. "We do one where I knock on your door and give you £3,000," he explained.
"So we did it, knocked on this woman's door, gave her the £3,000 and I say 'only', I give away £250,000. This is in comparison.
"But you have to remember £3,000 is a lot of money and she sent me a tweet two weeks later that said 'just so you know, my car which has been off the road for a year and a half and I've been getting the bus to work, I now can afford to have repaired, I can now go back to driving to work'.
"Things like that melt my heart. It's £3,000 which to her was life changing. It is all subjective. What is any sum of money?"
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